Star Fox: Revolution
by Colyo
Summary: Prequel to Starfox: Before the Dawn - Pending a rewrite that will be named Starfox: The Scarlet Hand.
1. Introduction

**Star Fox: Revolution**

Introduction

Five years after the events involving the Anglar Empires invasion of the Lylat System, the system finds itself in a period of relative peace. Ever since the victory, life has gone on as normal; and for the Star Fox team, life had become a dark expanse of boredom, patrolling one planet after the next in the search for excitement.

Fox and Krystal had remained onboard the Great Fox together with no one but each other and ROB, jumping from planet to planet. Ever since the events involving Krystal's banishment from the team, the relationship between the two foxes had been at it's most stable point in years. Tension between the two foxes had been high strung for a while; Fox had originally asked Krystal to stay behind on Kew because he didn't want to put her in dangers way. Krystal, not understanding this, had run off with Star Wolf where she silently cursed her former lover day after day. Fox had eventually apologized in front of everyone for his mistake and vowed never to leave her side again. Luckily for the two, Krystal had accepted this and gone back with him for the final battle versus the Anglar Emperor, and the two remained in love unwaveringly for the five years following. While their relationship was finally in good repair, everything else to do with the young foxes lives had seem to have fallen out of good maintenance; Fox and Krystal's personal fighters, the Arwing II and the Cloud Runner, had both become ill maintained and dilapidated from misuse. Time after time again Fox had pledged to keep the ships in good shape, but he ran out of reason to; not even Star Wolf, the infamous mercenary unit and rival organization to Star Fox, had made any appearances that warranted the fighters use.

Slippy and Amanda had gone back to their home world of Aquas when Amanda had announced she was pregnant, and were the last to leave Fox and Krystal to their solitude aboard the Great Fox. Falco had ditched the team first, when it became painfully clear that there would be no more action for the blue feathered avian's mercenary career; so he had left to pursue his long lost dream of becoming a top tier driver in the G – Zero series. Slippy and Falco's Arwings both stayed aboard the Great Fox where they slowly collected dust.

Peppy had taken the reins as Supreme Commander of the Cornerian Fleet head first, and was half the reason (ironically) that Star Fox and other mercenary groups were out of work. The hare was doing an incredible job in his new lofty position; the entire system seemed to be completely under control.

Fox and Krystal most recently had taken the Great Fox back to the lush dinosaur-occupied planet of Sauria, where they were relaxing with the last of the money they earned from the Anglar Crisis. Together they relaxed and vacationed across that gorgeous landscape for what they thought would be forever. Little did the two lovebirds know however, the adventures of the Star Fox team were about to make another sudden climax.


	2. Chapter 1: Broken Pact

**rChapter One**

**Broken Pact**

**5 years since the events of Star Fox Command**

**8:00 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**Location: Venom**

The empire under the fair Emperor Dash Bowman's rule had flourished quicker than anyone in the Lylat system could have ever imagined; only five years since the device his grandfather Andross had created began to terraform Venom into a habitable world, the planet had already nearly looked like a larger copy of gorgeous, blue Corneria at the other end of the system.

Atop the mountainous hill his palace stood upon, Dash looked out his bedroom window down at the city which he had named Androsia after his lost grandfather. The city was prosperous, for sure; huge skyscrapers that reached into the clouds dominated the now lush terrain, some of which so tall Dash could not even see their peaks from where he stood thanks to the cottony white clouds that covered a majority of the sky; a nice change from the polluted green that used to dominate Venom's atmosphere. The immense building that constituted Venom's center of government and trade occupied a large portion of his view; the building alone had taken up a space that was worth quarter of the city on its own. It was a huge, thick disc shaped structure, and Dash could see hover vehicles flittering around it like wasps around their nest, all serving to make the empire under his rule that much richer.

In ten more years, the Emperor predicted, his growing planet would finally catch up to Corneria itself in population and wealth. With begrudged scrutiny from the Cornerian Senate, his empire had also begun to build a navy of it's own to defend itself from the crime that had settled into Venom airspace over the decades of its exile from the other populated planets in the system. It already almost matched Corneria's navy; which had still not fully recovered from the immense losses during the Anglar Blitz.

One obstacle that had annoyed the Emperor for quite a while was how difficult it had been to have the Cornerian Senate agree to allow him to begin construction of a navy under the flag of Venom. He understood their hesitation, though, considering Venom's history for causing the citizens of Lylat untold grief over the past three decades.

Today, however, he prepared for departure to Corneria itself, to bring one of the last major motions towards Lylat's rulers before Venom could finally be considered a friend to Lylat.

Keeping his goal in mind, he set out through the castle with two green robe clad members of the Venomian Royal Guard at either side of him, down to the government space vessel docks only a short walk from the innards of his luxurious palace.

He approached his flagship the _Iron Fist_, by far the largest ship in the docks. While the name itself for the Saruzin class dreadnaught was rather intimidating, it hadn't been Dash who had named it; the ship was in fact one of the surviving ships of its class from the battle of Sector Y. This particular ship had been used to launch a prototype battle armor that was promptly destroyed by Star Fox. Fortunately for Dash, the ship itself had never been destroyed, and the powerful vessel was one amongst many others that were fit to be upgraded to the current day's standards in armor and weaponry, and could be integrated into a modern fleet.

As the Emperor and his two guards passed, mechanics and soldiers alike who saw them coming shot to the sidelines of the docking ramps, most stiff as a board saluting their ruler as he proceeded to his ship. The docking ramp promptly extended toward the hull of the _Iron Fist, _allowing them to continue inside of the vessel without even breaking stride.

His guards left him to board the ship and turned around to return to their posts in the castle, two marines immediately inside the vessel took over their escort without a word from their ruler, and the three proceeded toward one of the nearby deck-to-deck elevators that would bring Dash straight to the command bridge of the vessel.

All of the crew on the bridge stood and snapped to attention in a split second as he arrived, and he dismissed the gesture with a wave of his paw. "At ease."

The standard captain's chair in the large, circular room had been replaced with a more luxurious throne adorned with red leather padding and gold arm rests and trim. Instead of 4 legs, it featured a pedestal that swiveled a full 360 degrees. Dash paced to the chair and sat in it, sinking into its regal leather pillow-like surface whilst turning it toward the front viewport.

As he grew comfortable in his chair, he noticed the bridge crew staring at him, awaiting orders.

"Well?" he said in an irritated manner. "What are you waiting for! Prepare the ship for launch, and set a course for Corneria! We have an appointment to make."

The bridge officers began to scramble immediately to their posts, hitting switches and keys, sending status reports through the ships comm and talking amongst themselves in preparation. In a mere minute, he could feel and hear the signature rumble of the vessel's engines powering up.

The appointment to which Dash referred was none other than his business with the Cornerian Senate. In order to further solidify and finalize the presence of Venom as a peaceful nation at last, Dash aimed to propose that he and select representatives from Venom's senate be inducted into the Cornerian Senate, and that Venom become a full member of the Lylatian Alliance. The current members of the alliance were Katina, Fichina, Zoness, Aquas, Fortuna and obviously Corneria itself. Other than Venom, King Tricky of Sauria was also moving to become a member of the alliance, although that progressed slowly for reasons of its own.

The thought that truly made him seethe in fury was if the violent past of Venom caused the Senate to reject his offer altogether. He certainly wouldn't give up his case if that possibility came into fruition; but it would definitely make the job much more difficult. He had hoped that Corneria would see how far Venom had become since his Grandfathers time, and forgive the poor planets past sins and let bygones be bygones.

The Emperor sunk back into his lofty seat, shaking his head at the prospect of such a disastrous result of his efforts. Looking at the ship's navigator, he asked, "Are we prepared for launch, lieutenant?"

The blonde furred female collie looked up to her lord. "Yes, sire. The engines are up to peak power and we are ready for take off on your command."

Dash looked out of the front view screen at his impressive view of Androsia; he swelled with pride at its progress over these short years. "Excellent. Take us out of the atmosphere, Lieutenant, and set a course for Corneria. Take us to hyperspace the moment we are ready."

He relaxed and watched the view screen slowly change to reflect the immense ship's movements. He simply had to wait through the five hour hyperspace ride to Corneria, which if he was correct, would have him in orbit around the blue planet an hour before he was due at the Senate Chamber.

**Five Hours Later**

**1 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Cornerian Orbit**

The Iron Fist dropped out of hyperspace in the orbit of Corneria near the Orbital Gate right on schedule. When the ship rocked upon its drop out of hyperspace, Dash awoke with a start. He still sat in the captain's chair.

The navigator announced, "We have arrived in the Cornerian orbit, mi'lord, and we are preparing for docking with Corneria Station Four as we speak."

Dash, still a bit groggy from his snooze, replied, "Yes, of course, take us in. Inform me when we are docked. I will be in my quarters preparing for the hearing." With this, Dash practically leaped out of his beloved chair and left the bridge. He knew he would need a shower, and probably a good brushing to keep his white fur coat matted down well with a bright sheen; he wanted to look his best. He made his way to the officer's deck three decks below the bridge via an elevator that ran the height of the ship, which would take him to where his personal quarters were located.

Inside his over-sized room, he made sure to have a good shower, and slipped into what he called his "special occasion robe." The robe, a velvet gown like one would expect to see on an ancient medieval king, shimmered a deep red with a classic thick white fur trim. This robe however, was zippered down from neck to toe, and featured a lining of valuable gems in scores of different colours lining each side of the zipper. Even the zipper exuded luxury, being gold plated.

After the king sufficiently prepared to his best standards, he made his way back to the docking ramp where two soldiers met him to be his escort down to the Cornerian Senate Chamber. The two Cornerian soldiers, a dog and a raccoon, bowed and welcomed the young Emperor. They brought Dash through a series of elevators and hallways aboard Cornerian Station Four, the orbital center of government.

When they reached the speakers' lobby just outside the Senate Chamber itself, Dash was directed to a line of comfortable looking couches where he would await his turn. Instead, his eye caught an old snowy owl in a fine suit just exiting the chamber. Dash waved in his direction, catching his friends attention. The owl turned off of his course with a smile, pacing toward the young emperor.

"Mr. Bowman, it is good to see you my friend; welcome back to Corneria. What brings you back to this humble station?

Dash nodded in appreciation of the owl's welcome, but did not stand to meet him. "Hello again, Mr. Deckard… I have come today to make the final move we discussed before; I want to have Venom at last join the Lylatian Alliance."

Deckard shook his head, sitting beside the Emperor. "You know, as optimistic we felt about the idea back then my friend, I must warn you that it may not be as easy as we originally thought."

The ape suddenly felt an uncharacteristic wave of anger. He clenched his fangs and looked over to his companion. Almost growling, he snapped, "What do you mean, not as easy?"

Deckard was taken aback by his expression. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to offend you."

Dash shook his head, realizing the extent of his sudden violent wave. "No, of course not; I don't know what came over me and I apologize. What I meant to ask is; what makes you think the Senate wouldn't want anything to do with my proposal?"

"Well, you see…" He twiddled his thumb feathers, looking at the ground. "There are still those who fear what Venom has represented for the last while, and find it difficult to believe that it could have taken such a dramatic change over such a short time."

"I have proved it though, on multiple occasions. Have I not?"

An optimistic smile appeared once again on the owl's face. "Yes, you are right. Perhaps I am just being a bit pessimistic, I'm sure you'll be fine." He stood once more, giving a curtly nod to the ruler. "It was nice seeing you again my friend, but I'm afraid I have pressing matters to attend to, and must take my leave."

"I understand, good bye."

"The very same to you." Deckard said, getting back on his brisk course out the way Dash had arrived. As soon as the owl moved out of sight, he was surprised to suddenly notice a young red vixen secretary standing beside him, he didn't notice her approach, causing him to jump a little. "Mr. Bowman? The Senate is ready for your hearing now."

Still reeling over Deckard's ill optimism, Dash simply nodded to the secretary and made his way directly to the double doors leading to the chamber. His Cornerian escorts, and his own royal guardsmen, flanked both sides of him.

Dash could hear the hum of the political chatter before the Cornerian soldiers even opened the large double doors, and his heart-rate quickened. The fate of everything he had worked for would be decided today.

The Cornerian escort raised their hands to stop his guards, and they obeyed. Dash let the gesture pass without the slightest feeling of insult, and continued up a blue carpeted ramp to the podium where he would be making his speech. As he ascended he looked to his right and left; at least two hundred politicians surrounded the young ruler, all with their eyes on him. In his time as Emperor the stares he was receiving then he would never tolerate; but he could make an exception under the circumstances. He raised his arms as though to embrace them all, a gesture of his love for peace and democracy.

"Greetings, honorable Cornerian Senate! As you may already know, my name is Dash Bowman; current ruler of the Venomian Empire.". With this, he lowered his paws. He felt awkward leaving them up, and so did his audience, probably.

"As you may also may know, the once violent Venom has flourished much since the terraforming five years ago that allowed the once toxic wasteland to become populated; its wildlife has spurred just as much as its populace, and even now Venom already boasts almost half of Corneria's population thanks to immigration and the vast amounts of trade from Corneria itself and the other members of the Lylatian Alliance."

Murmurs began in the background, Dash simply assumed many of these people had not heard of Venom's stunning progress until now; it mattered little. "It is with this thought that I come before this Senate today with a proposition which would solidify the relationship between Venom and her neighboring planets, if only you would see fit to accept." Nods of appreciation and whispers began to surface, a good sign.

Dash smiled confidently. "Venom has been, for the last three decades, that deplorable green wasteland from which all of Lylat's suffering surfaced; but that has all changed. Thanks to extensive terraforming, Venom does not look so unlike Corneria in this day and age. It has become a beautiful planet, no longer fitting its namesake as well as it once did. With its new beauty has come a peaceful society that would appreciate nothing more than to join the rest of you in the Lylatian Alliance." More murmuring began to arise, the Emperor had no idea what they were saying, but he knew it could only be in his favour. It was basic sense to finally allow Venom a seat in the Senate.

"Keeping such in mind I hope you will take to heart my request in the same forgiving manner as you held when you allowed my planet a navy to protect itself…"

He finally decided it was time to get to the point. "I wish for Venom to be given a seat on the Cornerian Senate, as it has worked so hard for in these last five years." He paused, waiting for their reaction.

The Senators began to talk amongst themselves. Dash wondered impatiently what they could be discussing; was it seriously such a big issue to allow his planet a say in how the system is governed? As he continued to wait for a more audible reaction, fear began to clog his throat; the fear of the possibility that his request may be rejected.

After what seemed like a dozen or so minutes, an old grey furred squirrel stood up from his chair on his own platform built into the wall of the chamber. With a tilt of his glasses he picked up the microphone receiver from his desk. "While your intentions sound pure with such a statement, Dash Bowman, you must remember what Venom has done to Lylat in the past. After only five years you cannot possibly expect all of the populace's fear of the planet dissolve after everything that has happened."

Another councilor stood, as Dash began to let his jaw lower a bit in realization that his wish was about to be denied. This one, an ugly looking swine, had an ear set on rather than a radio receiver on her desk. "I agree with Mr. Corman, you cannot possibly expect Venom to be forgiven for its past sins - sins scaling on genocide - in a mere five years. It may take decades before the people are prepared to accept Venom as a peaceful nation."

Dash felt weak at the knees at this point, and spoke again. "Surely we can at least be acknowledged as an ally of the Lylatian Alliance for the time being!"

The head of the senate, an old bulldog sitting in a larger and more luxurious platform in the center floor of the chamber, stood. "No. This is our answer, Mr. Bowman, the Lylatian Alliance is not yet ready to accept Venom as a full member. Please exit this chamber so we may proceed to the next matter of business."

Dash shook his head, turning around in defeat. He said quietly to himself as he left out of the double doors he had entered from, "So that's it then? No chance for forgiveness, despite all we have accomplished?"

He would not let this blasphemy pass. As he made his way back to the _Iron Fist_, he began immediately to forge plans in his mind, and his thoughts buzzed around like an angry wasps nest. He would show the scum for their insolence; and insure for generations to come that there would be no such ignorant foolishness in the seat of government of Lylat; Dash took it upon himself as the new emperor, that he would unite Lylat under one banner, with whatever force was due necessary, so that his children and grandchildren would profit from the everlasting peace. In Dash's mind, and his grandfathers before him, the ends do, in fact, justify the means.

He stopped this train of thought- it was very unlike him. He would never consider mobilizing his navy over this; it would only make matters worse.

As his rage took precedence over his logic, however, his utter fury took control and demanded he take action. He promised to himself he would succeed where his grandfather failed.

**5 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Ruins of Venom Military Base on Macbeth**

The race intensified, but Falco lived for speed ever since the crumbling of Team Star Fox; he felt perfectly at home at ridiculous velocities.

He flew a small hover-ship with a star fighter class thrust engine on the back. The cab of the vehicle was round, but pointed to a teardrop shape toward the front of the car. Most of the cab was the cockpit, but toward the rear it became the engine. On either side of the cab were semi-circular wings that boasted smaller boosters on their undersides pointing down and back at an angle that allowed the craft to stay afloat. The cab itself was gray, and the wings a dark blue, in memorial to the classic gray/blue mixture that was standard to Star Fox Arwings.

Falco was racing at a ruined train depot that had been turned into a track; he recognized the train station from the battle of Macbeth during the Lylat Wars. It was a treacherous track for about half of it, which involved weaving in and out of broken buildings and destroyed train cars; which for the most part had been left to rot after Fox had torn through the place like a madman in the Landmaster all of those years ago. The second half of the track was mostly clear plains, which looped around back to the starting line, the same place Fox had been inserted in the Landmaster. He didn't catch the name of the track, but Falco didn't usually care about these details. He would make a truck load of credits from an easy race, and that was good enough for him.

He was winning by a long shot and felt disappointed at the competitors; it was turning out to be what he called a "Nobles race," where rich kids who think they can race put up massive bets to try to scare the other racers off. Falco had even been invited to the race directly because in order to attract enough attention for their little egos, they needed someone famous behind the yoke of one of the cars. It worked, because a massive audience watched on from the rafters near the starting line; there must have been at least a hundred thousand spectators.

Unfortunately for the brats he was racing against though, wealth has nothing to do with driving skill. He shook his head as he began to lap the person in last place, who was slowing down to make his way around a train car that had been knocked on its side. Falco simply slammed his hover-jets to full throttle which caused his car to practically jump over the wreckage. He could almost hear the cursing that erupted from the unfortunate teen's car; Falco imagined that we was about to make at least five thousand credits off of his idiotic betting, including all of the other nobles' bets, of course.

As Falco broke through the wrecked train station back onto the second turn where the course turned into plains, Falco threw the throttle back to full and felt the adrenaline rush through him as his car jumped to ridiculous speeds. He watched his speedometer… _300_ km/h, _400_, _500_, and it peaked at _554._ He frowned as much as the G force would allow his face to move, this same car had capped at six hundred only a week ago. He would have to check that out after the race. He hated dealing with mechanics almost as much as he hated taking candy from babies, that being precisely what this race felt like.

"I'll get over it," he said to himself with a smirk.

It was then he felt a massive rumble. Worried that his car was malfunctioning he turned the throttle back down to what was still a bit more than the other racers dared to reach, 350 km/h. He looked in his left rear view mirror and saw a massive dust cloud. He frowned again; he couldn't have caused that. His eyes however shot open when two explosions appeared ahead of him, and he witnessed three star fighters zoom past his view. He cursed aloud and broke off the track.

Looking up as he sped for cover, he saw massive waves of fighters breaking into the atmosphere, and through the cloud cover he saw at least three capital ships of a design he had never seen before. While strafing runs descended upon random points in the outskirts of Macbeth City, it looked like a large portion of the attacking fighters were heading toward the city. Though still reeling in surprise, he knew one thing; he had to get to a fighter and try his best to drive them off.

It only took him a couple minutes to travel the fifty kilometer distance back to the city, and he slowed down to guide his car through the tight packed streets of Macbeth City. Animals were running through the streets screaming in terror as explosions and laser fire rocked buildings around him. He was on the city's main street, in which everyone had abandoned their cars to run for their lives. Falco jammed his hover jets to half full again, to allow him to hover over the chaos.

He slowed down once the military base had come into view. He didn't bother stopping the vehicle, he slowed it to about 80 km/h and popped open the cockpit, jumping out of the car. He spread his wings to catch air to slow him down, landing on the black tarmac in front of the Hangar skillfully on his feet. Soldiers were scattered everywhere, alarms blared, and he saw fighters shooting out of the roof of the complex. A raccoon soldier recognized him and ran with him as Falco ran through the closest doors.

"Falco Lombardi?! We could use your help, sir! We have no idea where these guys are coming from but… we're getting hammered!"

Falco looked to him and replied, "Just get me to a fighter. I can't make any promises, but I'll see what I can do!"

"Yes, sir! Take any fighter in the bay you need, sir! Good luck!"

The raccoon stopped following him and turned off a different corridor as Falco burst through the last set of doors with his shoulder to see a collection of Cornerian fighters in a massive garage-like room with a hole in the roof for launching. All of the fighters were painted in Macbeth military greens; they looked like simple glider planes with an ion engine on the back, with the cockpit hanging under a single long wing that curved up on its port and starboard edges. Unlike the older Cornerian models, these fighters' lasers were mounted under the wings, instead of in front of the cockpit. He spread his wings to get a huge leap, which allowed him to drop right into the open cockpit of the nearest fighter. He familiarized himself with the controls with a quick glance and ran through his pre-launch checklist. The ion engine ignited at peak efficiency, shields up, repulsion engine online, G-Diffuser nominal, and weapons at the ready. The fighter was equipped with twin lasers and single lock, but no nova bombs.

He was surprised to see a G-Diffuser on a standard Cornerian model, but he knew that certain high ranking pilots kept them on their fighters. Bill Grey was one such pilot. _"Boy, would I like to see Bill here right now" _he thought to himself, bracing for launch.

Falco jammed on the repulsion throttle and the fighter shot up right through the hole in the roof. As soon as he was clear of any buildings he brought the throttle to full and shot into the skies. The battle zone was a scene of chaos; fighters being blown out of the sky at an alarming rate, and the single Cornerian heavy cruiser that was guarding the planet being slugged horribly by the three massive unidentified ships in orbit, each almost three times the size of the Cornerian vessel.

Falco wasted no time getting his first target, three fighters setting up to strafe ground targets and would serve as his pre-battle warm up from five years out of the cockpit. He saw them shooting downward to his left. He overshot them and tilted the fighter into a 115 degree axial roll on his left side, which allowed him to turn rapidly and descend toward a firing position behind the fighters. Once he was behind them he righted his fighter and the crosshair on the fighters HUD lit red to signify target locks alongside a familiar beep; he pulled the trigger on the fighter's yoke to see, to his satisfaction, his shots strike home. A stream of lasers leaped out of his fighter and vaporized two of the fighters in front of him. The third broke off back into the sky, limping with smoke trailing out of its wing.

Instead of breaking to pursue the damaged fighter, Falco shot directly upward back toward the chaos; it was time for him to do some damage. He picked his next mark; another shield trio of fighters diving straight toward the planet, set to pass right by Falco. He let off a series of snap shots that ripped through the three ships, allowing nothing to pass him but masses of wrecked metal and flame from the explosions.

All sound cut out once he broke the planet's atmosphere and into vacuum. Falco prayed to himself for reinforcements and began to wonder where these strange ships had come from. He angled his fighter toward the capital ships that were pounding the single Cornerian ship. The closest one to him began to fire its turrets at him when he flew too close; but Falco expertly dodged salvo after salvo despite his rusty piloting. Capital ship guns were meant to target massive, slow moving ships of their own size, not small single-pilot fighters. He strafed the side of the ship and, to his satisfaction, had been within the ships shield barrier. Turrets and windows all along the side he had strafed were blew out with billowing flames that were cut out almost instantly by the cold vacuum of space.

Falco made his way to the front of the ship to the bridge, hoping he could disable it quickly by blowing out its command crew. As soon as he had run the length of the ship he pulled hard to port and saw the command bridge jutting out of the bow exactly where he had expected it to be. Falco opened up with lasers, and the bridge was, in moments, awash with energy and shattered remains. At the same moment the ship stopped firing; one down, two to go.

On his way to the next ship, however, he picked up another set of three fighters on his tail; he dodged left and right as lasers shot right past him, threatening to chew through his fighters' hull, and him with it. When the fighters came too close, Falco slammed the engine brakes and the three fighters overshot him. As they passed he immediately acquired target lock on his former pursuers and watched as the three fighters all but vaporized. He quickly caught up to the second of the strange capital ships, and it began to fire on him right away. He began to dodge but suddenly felt a horrible rumble; his cockpit went red with an alarm light. He had been hit.

Falco's luck had run out. He cursed aloud at his diagnostics board's indication that the fighter was practically falling apart. One of the wings was completely gone, but he was satisfied to learn the ship's onboard hyperdrive was still operational, He quickly worked on his console to lock in a course to where he had last heard the Great Fox had went: Sauria. As the stars around his ship stretched, and he flung into hyperspace, the hurt frame of the fighter groaning but not exploding into tiny pieces. Falco decided to get some much earned sleep; the trip, according to Falco's best guess, would last a full eight hours.

**8 Hours after the battle over Macbeth.**

**1 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**In Orbit Around Sauria**

Beeping; this particular beep was familiar to Fox, and as he lay in his bed aboard the Great Fox, he wracked his brain. He couldn't remember exactly what that beep meant, however he did know that it was infernally annoying. It was intrusive; rather than a friendly notification it was the most annoying buzz he had ever heard. He hoped just to wait out the nuisance, but then he felt pressure; a warm touch. He didn't mind the touch, it was warm and soft, not nearly as annoying as the beeping. He wanted them to let him sleep though. He felt the push again, then a voice.

"Fox!" the angel said. "Fox. wake up!"

With this, Fox awoke with a start. He sat up quickly and looked to his left where Krystal, the beautiful blue vixen he had fallen in love with years ago, in nothing but her black lace underwear, was sitting up beside him.

"Whaaaa.. Wazzz goin on?" Fox said lazily. "Wha time is it?"

"Fox, the beeping, it's the proximity alarm. We should check out what it is…"

"Its okay, Krystal, probably just a damn asteroid or something like that." He began to rub sleep out of his eyes.

"An asteroid his close to the planet!? That's even more serious!"

"Oh. Alright then, better check it out, I guess."

Fox, with a yawn, pulled off the covers of his warm bed and stood up lazily. He wore only his favourite white cotton boxers. With a tired limp, he went to the wall's built in closet and put on some casual clothes: a black T shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Krystal simply threw on a blue bath robe that was hanging on the door to the room's personal washroom. He dragged himself out of the room, with the surprisingly energetic Krystal at his side, whilst turning to yell at his offending walls that persisted with their intrusive beeping. "ROB, what is it?! Why are you beeping at me?! What time is it!?"

The monotone voice of his faithful robot friend replied. "A HEAVILY DAMAGED CORNERIAN STAR FIGHTER HAS JUST DROPPED OUT OF WARP JUST OUTSIDE OF SAURIAN ORBIT. IT HAS SET A COURSE WITH THE GREAT FOX. IT IS ONE 'O' CLOCK AM LYLAT STANDARD TIME."

With this, Fox woke up completely, looking to Krystal thoughtfully. She also had a look of concern on her face.

The two vulpines ran to the bridge of the Star Fox flagship, arriving to see their robotic companion ROB waiting at the door. They entered, and they could immediately see out of the main bridge viewport a small dot floating toward the Great Fox. It was still too far away to see what it was, though. Krystal spoke up first; "I can sense a life form out there, but it's too far away to tell exactly who it is."

Fox replied sitting in his chair; "Guess we should tow them in. ROB, get a tractor beam on that fighter and pull it into the docking bay."

"UNDERSTOOD."

Fox was both worried and excited at the same time as he ran down to the docking bay with Krystal. There were only a handful of pilots that knew where Fox and Krystal were that would come for help, and they might be hurt; but at the same time, this may mean that there was a situation where Fox could finally get back out in his Arwing for a little excitement. He wondered what the problem could be this time; war from an ancient species that no one ever heard of? Invasion from a distant star system? Horribly insidious mind-controlling plague like the Aparoids? He didn't like the sound of the latter, but he was ready to deal with anything to get the adrenaline rushing through his body again. Krystal looked over to him once he finished that thought, and she smirked; he was of course familiar with her ability of telepathy, and she probably heard everything that just went through his mind. He assumed the smirk meant that she was also excited that they would finally get out working again. Fox took a moment to wish he possessed the same power she did.

The two foxes approached the ruined green fighter that lay in the docking bay. The cockpit opened up automatically, but no pilot jumped out. Fox leaped up on the edge of the opened cockpit and looked inside; there he saw a sleeping blue falcon wearing a black pilot's jumpsuit whom he immediately recognized as his former right hand man, Falco Lombardi. "Yo, Falco, wake up buddy!" he said, slapping him lightly to get his attention.

The bird shook his head and opened his eyes. "Whoa, I'm here already?"

"What the heck happened to you?" Fox said.

"We were worried when we saw how bad the fighter looked. Are you all right?" Krystal added.

"I'm fine, no thanks to this piece of crap… It's a long story. Got any grub? I haven't eaten in like, a day."

Fox jumped off the side of the fighter, "Yeah, we got lots. Come on down, we have a lot to catch up on."

Falco pulled his sorry carcass over the side of the ship, and dropped to the floor, landing on his feet with the grace of an elephant high on morphine. Fox assumed he was just half asleep.

"No time for small talk, Fox," he said, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "This is serious. We might have another war on our hands."

The three made their way to the ship's galley, only a few doors down from the docking bay. Fox and Falco each grabbed a seat, and Krystal went straight to the kitchen where she grabbed some chips out of one of the cupboards for her lack of wanting to cook something at this time in the morning. She brought the bags to the table, and Falco tore into one right away. Fox didn't want any, so he just crossed his arms on the table and looked at Falco. "So, what's going on?"

Falco took a second to swallow the chips in his mouth. "Macbeth was attacked.".

Krystal spoke up now; "Are you serious? By whom?"

"No idea. Ships reminded me of the old Venom army back in the War, but I heard Venom made a peaceful approach ever since Dash took over."

Fox cocked an eyebrow; "This doesn't make any sense. I know the guy, he'd never just randomly throw a fleet around like that without a good reason. Hell, he even had us teach him how to fly an Arwing."

Falco put down the bag of chips and swallowed another mouthful; "Well whoever it was, they stirred up quite the wasp's nest. They dropped three god damn battleships into Macbeths orbit and bombed the hell out of it without any warning. Barely got out alive, as you can see."

Fox cradled back in his seat, confused. Why would Venom, if it was the culprit, throw an invasion around all of the sudden now that it was a peaceful society? He knew that they were rich because of the planets untapped resources, but to spend it on an invasion fleet? Fox had thought that Dash was moving for a peace treaty with the Cornerian Senate.

Krystal leaned forward on the table. "We can't let this go; we should contact Slippy and get to Corneria, and see what they're going to do in response."

Fox agreed. "Let's get going to Aquas then. We could use another talented pilot, and his mechanical skills will come in handy. We should get to work on our Arwings too, make sure they're in tip top condition. Slippy can help with that too once we pick him up." He looked to Falco. "What do you think, buddy, think this is serious enough to bring the team back?"

Falco smirked. "I wouldn't be all the way out here if I didn't."

Krystal stood up. "It's settled then! I'll be down in the docking bay looking over the Cloud Runner." As she said this and walked out the door, practically skipping, Fox cocked an eyebrow again. She seemed pretty happy that there was a war going on. Sure it was nice to get into the action again, but to the point of skipping?

_Hell with it, _Fox thought; _This is gonna be just like ol' times, war or not, I lived for the feeling of battle behind the yoke back in the day_. Fox had placed sound receptors in every room in the ship so he could call his robotic friend at any time from anywhere in the ship, and he yelled at one now. "ROB, set a course for Aquas, maximum velocity. As soon as we get there, hail Slippy. Give me the ETA."

ROB replied through a speaker in the corner of the room near the door; "UNDERSTOOD CAPTAIN. COURSE SET. ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL 6 AM LYLAT STANDARD TIME APPROXIMATELY 5 HOURS FROM NOW. I SUGGEST YOU GET BACK TO SLEEP."

Fox planned to obey, but first he stood up, stretched, and told Falco, "Grab a room anywhere bud and get some sleep, it's going to be a long day tomorrow."

After looking over her Cloud Runner, Krystal made her way back to her and Fox's room. Opening the door, she looked at Fox in the bed who was already sound asleep. With a giggle she slipped out of her bathrobe and pulled herself under the covers, being careful not to stir him from his slumber. She smiled to herself. _"The whole teams going to be together again, flying missions. I'm so excited!"_ With this thought, the feeling of sleepiness finally took over, and she dozed off with her arms around her sleeping lover.

Falco limped lazily into the room he once called his own when he was still part of Star Fox. It was left relatively unchanged, and out of curiosity he wondered if any of his old uniforms and clothes were in there. To his amazement, he tapped the door on the closet and it slid open to reveal that they were. "Damn Fox." he said to himself; "You need to clean this ship more often." He was silently grateful though as he slipped out of his racing uniform that he was wearing for the past 20 hours; and into a simple pair of boxers. He dived into the soft bed that seemed to be calling for him. "_I missed this bed," _he thought to himself as he passed out cold.

**6 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**11 AM Atlantis Time **

_**(Atlantis being the capital city of Aquas, where Slippy is located)**_

**Aquas Orbit**

Beeping again. Fox loathed that infernal beeping. It annoyed him to no end. He assumed he was going to feel that nice push again too, but he didn't. This annoyed him even more. Why did he get the beeps without the push? He liked the push. He wanted the push now, it was soft and warm and he wanted it. He waited. No more push for Fox. He frowned in his half-sleep state; that beeping must stop. He considered pulling out his blaster and shooting the offending beeping, but he couldn't remember where he kept his blaster. Instead, as he thought this, it became louder. As soon as it did, AHA! The push came. He smiled. His angel was warm and cuddly. Then he heard the voice again;

"Fox? We're at Aquas, wake up!"

He groaned and opened his eyes. "Make the beep go away…"

'"ROB, cut out the alarm!"

He obeyed, leaving the two vixens in silence again except for the comforting hum of the ship's engines. A new feeling caught hold of him: hunger. He wanted something delicious to eat, sooner rather than later. He awoke with this thought, and looked over once more to his angel. "Oh, good morning gorgeous." He took the moment that her cheeks turned a deep shade of purple to look over her form, even after five years of waking beside this angel; he still took enjoyment of taking in the view each and every morning. He loved her more than anything. This thought snapped him awake fully. "Damn, I'm hungry. What were we doing here again?"

Krystal reminded him. "We were coming to Aquas to get Slippy."

"Oh, yeah, the war and all that stuff."

"Yes Fox, the war."

"Lets eat before we call him, I'm starving. Up for pancakes?"

"Sure… I'll go wake Falco, you start them up."

"Mmkay..." he said, sheepishly walking out the door in his boxers.

"Fox! Clothes?"

The vulpine turned around again. "Oh, right."

Fox finally awoke completely and began heading to the kitchen. He loved waking up to Krystal every morning while he was still euphoric and unaware of his situation from sleep. He always mistook her for the angel he believed he would meet when he died. Those cerulean gems she called eyes stunned him every time he looked into them, and usually were what motivated him to keep good cheer despite the five years of boredom since the end of the last war.

He was freshly showered and wearing something simple; a baggy pair of black jeans, his black combat boots, and a dark green long-sleeved fleece shirt. He liked the boots; Krystal bought them for him as a birthday present the year previous. They were comfortable on the inside; but they had a very hard-but-light toe on them. He was attacked by a Sharpclaw on Sauria one day whilst wearing them; with one kick to the dinosaur's jaw its neck snapped. He liked his lucky boots.

When he finally made his way to the kitchen, he rushed to work on the pancake mix in their "ingredient cupboard". By the time he finished, he brought the stack of delicious fluffy goodness out to a waiting Krystal, who said, "Falco'll be up in a bit, Fox. He's getting dressed and taking a shower, apparently."

He replied whilst setting the pancakes on the table, "Alright, lets get some food into us before we call Slippy.". Fox practically dove into his pancakes; he loves pancakes almost as much as he loves his boots.

Krystal giggled at him when she saw some syrup dribbling from his lip down his chin. "Fox, you got some on your chin.".

"Oh," he said, running his finger up his chin to find it, and doing his best to get it out of his fur. She giggled again at his efforts to get the sticky liquid out.

"Here… let me help, silly" She pulled out of her seat and walked over to him. To Fox's surprise and amazement, she actually kissed his chin, licking the syrup off. When she pulled away she licked her lips at him seductively, and he felt a very sudden arousal. She laughed full out at him, the dumbstruck look on his face a tell-tale sign of how stunned he was that she had done such a thing, and she kissed him full on the lips. This was one of those moments that Fox wanted to last forever, and was the only reason he hesitated in joining this war; he didn't want to put the love of his life in the line of fire. He had made the mistake of leaving her behind before and would not make it again; he simply had to try his best to keep her safe out on the field. Anyone who targeted her, he would vaporize.

Suddenly an irritatingly sarcastic voice interrupted their moment. "You two love birds make enough pancakes for one more? God damn, they smell good." Falco said, walking into the galley. He wore a red t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans.

Krystal broke off her kiss. "Sure, Falco. Help yourself." He did, grabbing what was left of the pancakes off the larger plate in the center of the table and sitting across from Fox, Krystal between them on the other side of the table. Fox frowned at the plate in the center, no more pancakes.

Once the three had finished eating and moved to the bridge, Fox pulled into his captain's chair, the other two stayed standing behind him on either side. He called out to ROB, who stood near the front view screen. "ROB, do you have a fix on Slippy?"

ROB turned around to his master and confirmed, "AFFIRMATIVE, WE PREPARED TO INITIATE CONTACT AT ANY TIME." Fox ginned, ROB was always efficient at his work. He didn't know what he would do on this ship without him.

"Alright, hail Slippy. Let's see how the dummy is doing." The view screen hissed to static for a moment, and then a picture of the familiar green frog still wearing his favourite red cap came on the screen.

"Fox! How are ya ol' buddy! I can't believe it, it's been like, five years about hasn't it?!"

"About that long, yeah. How's Amanda?"

As he said this, the familiar pink frog popped up on the screen. "Hi Fox!!! Krystal!! Falco!!! How are you three?!? I missed you!!!".

Krystal spoke up. "Amanda, how long have you been expecting?!" Fox looked up at Krystal, she looked stunned.

He looked back at the screen. "How long _what_?" The camera view was pushed back as Slippy pushed it to make the view on the two frogs larger. Fox immediately noticed a huge bulge in the pink frogs stomach.

"I'm pregnant, you guys!! Isn't it great?! Only two more months to go!" Even Falco's jaw dropped. Fox's hit his lap.

Fox frowned and spoke though after a few seconds of awkward shock and silence. "Looks like you'll be staying on Aquas then."

Slippy frowned. "Of course! Why, what's up?"

After Fox had finished explaining the situation, Slippy appeared to be thinking hard. "Well Fox, you know on any other day I would come with you, but I need to look over Amanda, especially if Aquas might come under attack. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if she ever got caught on the ground when an invasion fleet comes and I'm not there to help her!"

Fox smiled; he expected no less. Slippy may be a dink some times, but his heart was in the right place. "Alright, I understand buddy. If they do come, good luck."

Falco stopped him. "Hold up, before we go, do you think you could take a look at the Arwings? None of us are half as good as you with a hydro spanner."

Slippy's eyes lit up. "Of course! I'll come aboard right away. Be there in a bit!"

After Slippy had come up in his personal fighter, the Bullfrog, he spent three hours or so busying himself with the machines. Fox went down with him, to learn more about mechanics so he might be able to do the repairs himself without Slippy around. He was glad to show the vulpine around the more delicate parts, and Fox was able to repair his own Arwing II without much interference from his amphibious teacher.

"Alright, Fox, I better get back down to Amanda.".

"Alright, thanks for your help, buddy. Remember; if they do decide to hit up Aquas, make sure to send us a call post haste so we can help stave them off."

"I'll remember Fox, you're the best!"

With this, Slippy jumped back into his Bullfrog and sped back down toward Aquas. Fox wiped off sweat that had built on his brow. Now that the ships were ready for action, he needed to make sure he was. Just as he passed this thought, the docking bay PA system came to life. "RECEIVING MESSAGE FROM GENERAL PEPPY HARE. PRIORITY ONE."

Upon hearing this, the three crew members of the ship ran up to the bridge. Fox had arrived there last. The two had their eyes fixed on the screen, waiting for Fox to give the order. "On screen, ROB."

A familiar grey furred hare popped up on the screen. He was wearing a small set of glasses, and a fancy red generals uniform. Peppy smiled as he looked at Fox. "Long time no see, Fox."

Fox grinned. "Doing well for yourself I see, old man!"

The hare looked to Krystal. "Oh, you two made up! That's nice to see,".

Fox blushed a bit. "Yeah we did during the Anglar invasion…".

Peppy frowned. "That long ago, and I didn't know? Well shit Fox, I thought you would keep me better informed than that ol' pal."

Fox frowned as well. "Sorry Peppy, I probably should have visited you once or twice in these last five years shouldn't've I…."

"Don't worry about it, its good to see you again." He said with an understanding smile.

This brought the smile back to Fox's face. "So, what's this about?"

Peppy's look turned serious at the mention of business. "Right; Fox, did you hear about the attack on Macbeth?"

Falco stepped up. "Yeah, I was there, I told them already."

Peppy continued; "Alright, then you know what's at stake already. After Dash was refused an equal position with the Cornerian Senate two days ago, he seemed to have burst. He's declared all out war with Corneria. Macbeth was the first of his targets. We've already assembled the Cornerian fleet around Fichina, and I called to ask whether you would be up for leading the fleet into battle, we could use every advantage we can get considering how crippled we are."

Fox grinned at this. "That was my intention from the start. I'm on my way to Fichina now, Peppy. Hold tight." At this, the screen winked out.

Fox turned to his robotic companion that was loafing around the bridge during this conversation. "ROB, plot a course for Fichina, maximum velocity. We have a war to fight."

ROB simply chimed; "AFFIRMATIVE, COURSE LAID IN, ETA FOUR HOURS." All three of the animals grinned. Finally they would be back in action.

**An Hour before the Battle of Macbeth, Two Days Earlier**

**The Iron Fist**

Dash was absolutely infuriated at the Senate's reaction to his proposition. His face flushed red with rage as he paced his room aboard the Iron Fist. He had long since thrown off his "special occasion coat;" he would have it burned, and he never wanted to see it again for it would always remind him of the words of that disgusting old squirrel senator.

As he paced, he could have sworn he heard the voice of an old man.

_'Dash.... Dash my Grandson... listen to me...'_

Dash stopped pacing and the expression on his face completely changed; _No,_ he thought to himself, _He's dead, I'm hearing things._

'_Listen....'_

He heard it for sure that time. "G- Grandfather?! Where are you?!"

'_You must unite Lylat under one banner… The banner of Venom!'_

"Must we go to war? Just a few more years and perhaps they will change their mind!"

_'You know what must be done... Allow me to impart my wisdom on you my grandson, together we will rule Lylat...'_

Dash began to crumble in distress. "Yes, please, Grandfather... Help me…" He could barely help himself, something deep down compelled him to obey.

The distressed ruler fell to his knees, ridden with both curiosity and confusion. What was the ghostly whisper of his grandfather going to do to him? He scanned the ceiling with his eyes hoping to see some ghostly image to help make sense of what he was hearing.

_'There is a way to bring me back... With me at your side... Venom will be invincible...'_

Dash simply dropped his jaw at this. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, was there actually a way to bring him back? Dash had owed his grandfathers device for his rule, and if there was a way to bring him back to Venom from the ether realm, Dash could only imagine the things they could accomplish together.

_"Listen carefully, my grandson; there are steps that must be taken"_

Dash listened faithfully on his knees as Andross explained... He would obey every word if it meant the revival of his long dead grandfather.

**Ten Minutes Later**

Dash burst into the bridge as fast as the door snapped out of his way. He didn't bother to sit. His face was laden with resolve, and the wandering eyes of his bridge crew met him. He paced to the front of the bridge and looked down at Corneria.

"Set a course back for Venom; contact the first and second battle groups. Tell them to prepare for an immediate strike on Macbeth."

His navigation officer went immediately to work, but the black feline male that was working the communications booth turned to face his ruler. "Mi'lord?"

"We are going to war."


	3. Chapter 2: Sloppy Start

**Chapter Two**

**Sloppy Start**

**1:06 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**July 24th**

**Fichina's Orbit**

The three pilots were well rested and prepared for the battle that was about to take place. All of the Cornerian military was a bit stiff from 5 years of relative boredom, and Star Fox was no exception. It had taken Fox and Slippy a long time just to get the Arwings in combat order again. _Hopefully_, Fox thought to himself, _the rust that's built up on us won't get us shot down out there today._

He has had long breaks before between wars, especially between the Aparoid invasion and the Anglars. Every time he had to re-acquaint himself with combat on the field. What worried him is that he might not get such an easy battle to warm him up this time through; especially because he had team mates to protect.

Fox was sitting on his captain's chair still aboard the bridge of the Great Fox, looking out the front view screen which showed a moderately sized fleet of Cornerian ships in orbit around the mostly-frozen world. There was a large patch of green that took up about a fifth of the planet, which was where the terraforming was taking place that would turn Fichina into a planet that is just as habitable as Corneria.

He did a head count of the ships. The largest dreadnaught-sized ship he could see was the _Patriot_ that was under the direct command of Peppy. It was in the front of the fleet,. It was an immense rectangular ship that had two huge ion engines splitting off vertically at the back, and alongside the port and starboard faces of the main body were guns of all shapes and sizes.

To the left and right of the _Patriot,_ there were two battle cruisers; which were Pleiades-class weapons platforms. They featured a long, V shaped body with two flat sections stacked vertically on the back of the ship. The bottom one served as the mount for 5 five smaller ion engines, and the top platform was covered in laser cannons. Behind the _Patriot _and the two cruisers, were a more familiar ship; Cornerian Assault carriers very similar to the Great Fox II, and they would most likely be used to carry waves of smaller fighter craft to the front lines. Each of the five larger ships had 2 smaller frigate ships guarding them apiece, but Fox couldn't see any details about them due to distance. fifteen ships in all, it was a formidable fleet.

Falco had informed them that the invasion of Macbeth featured 3 enemy dreadnaughts, and one was destroyed. Peppy had assumed that they would have reinforced the garrison they had there, so he made sure that the retaliation force was going to be amply big enough to stomp out the Venom Navy over Macbeth, allowing for a quick and smooth takeover with minimal casualties.

The trick was, that Peppy believed it was likely that the Venom Navy had a second, more powerful fleet standing by near Macbeth, that was ready to jump in at any time trapping the Cornerians when they were already weakened by the garrison that was defending it, so he decided his course of action; Star Fox would go in first, and blow up the two remaining dreadnaughts in orbit around Macbeth, luring out the Venom Navy's backup force. Then, Peppy would spring his own trap; bringing in his fleet on top of the Enemy's support fleet. Fox personally thought it was the most cunning plan he had ever heard of, but then again, he was more used to star fighter combat; large scale capital ship battles were out of his expertise.

Krystal's voice broke in over the PA system; "Fox, we're ready to launch when you are.".

The Fox perked his ears up. "Copy that, just getting clearance from Peppy to begin the operation, and were gonna jump in right on top of the bastards."

Falco butted in; "All right, just like ol' times! Let's kick some Venom tail!"

As if on que, Peppy appeared on the screen again. "Fox, our fleet is ready to begin the operation. Send us the signal as soon as the enemy's reinforcements jump in, and if they don't show up at all, signal us anyway."

Fox stood up. "Understood, General, you can count on me!"

The old hare smiled. "I know I can, Fox. Don't let me down."

Fox made his way out of the command bridge as Peppy faded off the screen. "ROB, set a course for Macbeth. Open the docking bay doors as soon as we drop out of hyperspace and prepare for combat!"

The robot tilted its old neck hinges into a mock nod, and said; "AFFIRMATIVE, PREPARING SPACE BATTLE STRATEGY CHIP FOR ACTION. GOOD LUCK, TEAM."

Fox walked down the hall towards the elevator at the ship's center that would take him down to the docking bay. Fox had changed before heading up to the bridge; he was in a classic blue and white camouflage tank top and matching pants, and his lucky boots. On his right thigh was a holster holding his blaster, the same one he brought to the Aparoid City 5 years ago. On his left thigh, he had a serrated edged combat knife in a black leather holster. Usually he didn't like to get very close and personal, he liked how blasters sealed up wounds with the heat of their rounds; and wasn't a fan of blood splatter, but some times when things got too close for comfort he had to use it. He wasn't afraid to.

He recalled a time when he went with Krystal to get parts for the Great Fox on Kew, and they were attacked by a gang of thugs he had assumed were out to rape Krystal; he had used his knife then, unfortunately for the attackers. After the skirmish, 4 were sporting black pits of burnt flesh from Fox's blaster, one had his Larynx sliced clean in half by the sharp edge of Krystal's staff, and the last Fox had used his knife on, opening a 2 foot long gash from the rats left waist, to his right shoulder. Blood was all over him, but he didn't mind that time. That bastard had tried to violate his love, and for that the rat would feel the worst kind of pain Fox could have possibly inflicted. He shook that memory out of his head as he boarded the elevator.

Once he got to the docking bay, the two were waiting for him. Krystal had her classic armor on that she wore during the Aparoid invasion, and Fox wasn't complaining; she looked gorgeous in whatever she wore. Falco was wearing his red flight vest with a white T under it, with blue jeans. He was sitting the left wing of his Sky Claw, watching fox come in. Krystal was already looking over her pre-launch checklist, making sure that Fox and Slippy hadn't missed any details by mistake when they were looking them over.

Fox jumped into the cockpit of his own Arwing and shouted out of it. "You ready guys?"

Krystal was the first to reply. "All systems in the green, I'm ready." Fox knew she wasn't;, her voice was a tad bit nervous. H, he knew she was rusty piloting the Arwing having not flown it in a combat mission for over 5 years. He had faith in her, but he would keep his eye on her anyway, just in case.

Falco was next; he was in his cockpit running through his pre-launch checklist as well. He tapped his diagnostic board, and all of its status bars were green and lit up with the words "READY". "Ready to rock, Fox, You good to go?"

Fox jumped into his cockpit. "Yeah."

Fox finished bringing his Arwing to life. He always loved the sounds of the engine starting up; it was like a low whine that increased in pitch quickly to a high pitched hiss as the Arwing began to float above the deck, then quieted down again into a soft rumble.

On repulsor lifts, he floated his ship counter-clockwise until he was facing the massive bay doors. The other two had to move their Arwings, but they stopped, floating above the deck in line with him. Fox to Falco's right, Krystal to Falco's left.

Fox heard the robotic voice come over the communicator. "WE HAVE ARRIVED AT MACBETH. TWO VENOM NAVY DREADNAUGHTS ARE IN ORBIT AS REPORTED, . THEY HAVE HEAVY FIGHTER SUPPORT, . OPENING DOCKING BAY DOORS NOW."

As ROB said this, the docking bay doors slowly began to slide apart, revealing the green and blue planet below them. Two massive green Y shaped ships were floating in space, slowly maneuvering to face the Great Fox.

"Affirmative, ROB. Bring the Great Fox's weapons online, and good luck!"

"YOU AS WELL FOX. BE CAREFUL OUT THERE."

"Okay! Falco, Krystal, lets go!"

The three pilots slammed on their throttles one after the other, firing out of the docking bay. Fox loved the feeling of flying in space, and he was going up against an enemy again; someone that was going to fight back with everything they had. Fox grinned with a predatory smirk., _Ttime to get this show on the road._

The three fighters formed up in a triangle formation; Krystal on the left, and Falco on the right. Fox checked his lasers;, they were green and primed. He had twin lasers installed during the Anglar invasion, and he kept them on, welcoming the new addition of firepower. The Cloud Runner Krystal was still flying also had twin lasers and single lock-on, Falco's Sky Claw was a bit unique, it only had single lasers, but boasted multi-lock on technology, which would allow him to punch down entire groups of fighters as long as he has enough time to get the lock.

The three eventually got close enough to the enemy fighters that were rushing them head on. He was surprised, there wereas only about 3 12three twelve fighter squadrons coming from two dreadnaughts; either they were just playing with him, or Peppy was right, and this was a trap.

As they rushed on towards the initial head-to-head, the three Arwings opened up with lasers as soon as they got in range. At about the same time, the 36 fighters they flew against did the same. The Arwing pilots decided not to use their bombs yet, they would need them for maximum damage against the capital ships.

As the enemy fighters returned fire, the three Arwings broke off from their formation and began to weave and roll, dodging the laser fire expertly. Fox smirked to himself, flying an Arwing was like riding a bike, you just never forget.

After the first head to head, Fox checked his radar. After a quick count, he still read three Arwings, and only 25 fighters left. They had shot down 7 of the poor fools already, but this is where things got tricky. The fighters they just ran head to head with began to scatter and take the Arwings as targets. This is where the Star Fox pilots would begin to play chicken, leading their pursuers to the waiting targeting reticules of another Arwings lasers.

Falco was the first to call out pursuers. "Got 4 on my ass, any takers?"

Krystal crackled over the comm. "I'm inbound, Falco, get mine while we're at it."

The two craft crisscrossed in the air, each of their groups of pursuers was ripped apart by the Arwings' lasers, and the stray fire that was meant to hit the Arwings. Fox cranked his neck around and saw 3 fighters on his tail, they were firing constantly, hoping that some of the spray would knock on Fox's shields. Fox weaved and jinked around trying to throw them off, but the games were over. Fox cranked the G-Diffuser up, and he could hear it taking a toll on his power cell as it strengthened the field in his cockpit that allowed his body to ignore large amounts of G force. He cranked the fighters yoke back and he pulled into a dizzying summersault, once he got out of it he turned the G-Diffuser back down and he dropped back into his seat as gravity returned, he was now behind the three unfortunate fighters.

He sprayed his lasers, and they caught 2 of the victims right in their engines, causing them do detonate. Fox shot through the debris and began to get a laser lock on the last target. The fighters attempts at escape were futile, dodging left and right only to be chased by the relentless Arwing as if he was towing it himself. Fox sported a vicious smile when the target reticule gave its one note song in confirmation of a clean lock. He let go of the trigger, and a green ball of death shot out of the left laser cannon, soaring into his target causing it to vapourize.

He pulled back to check how Krystal and Falco were doing. They had killed 9 in their head-to-head game of chicken; Fox had just taken down another 3. 25 - 12; he ran through his head to be 13, and he smirked; almost 2 squadrons worth of fighters down already.

"_They must be pissing themselves." _he thought, as he chased down another set of fighters that were struggling to get a lock onto Krystal.

**Back on the Great Fox**

ROB liked being depended on during missions. While he knew sadness that he was not an actual person, he had learned how to enjoy what he does. ROB had experience with ship to ship combat, he had done it many times even since he was under the command of James. He had won capital ship fights during the Lylat Wars, he had won them during the Aparoid Invasion, he had won them during the Anglar Invasion, and now he was going to win again.

In the Anglar Invasion the Great Fox II was but a decommissioned assault carrier without any weapons but basic missile launchers, and he had still laid down the law. Now, Fox had used money earned from that war to equip the Great Fox II with a powerful array of weaponry- 5 hyper laser cannon turrets that were installed on the port and starboard sides of the ship, and two massive disruptor cannons on the bow that dwarfed even the ones that were on the original Great Fox. He scanned the two ships that had turned to approach him. They were large, each was as large as the Great Fox II, but he was sure that with Fox's help he could, and he would, bring them down. Fox was depending on ROB to get the job done. His positronic brain was reacting with the ships controls wirelessly at speeds that no organic pilot could match.

The Great Fox had its shields up, weapons armed, and thrusters at full before an organic captain could even finish the order. ROB enjoyed this part, the part where he charged into the front lines to his masters rescue.

He buzzed over the communication line to Fox. "GREAT FOX IS MOVING INTO POSITION. READY TO ENGAGE TARGETS."

**Out in Space**

Upon hearing this, Fox pulled away from targeting the unfortunate fools in the enemy hunks of metal they called fighters and shot towards the enemy capital ships. Fox was going to need to give the Great Fox a hand with this, or it might actually lose this fight. Falco and Krystal cleaned up with the last of the squadron that was sent after them and caught up to Fox using their boost.

They were back in triangular formation. Once they got close enough, the two massive ships began to open up with its massive energy turrets, trying to shoot down the three nimble Arwings. Effortlessly, the three dodged the slow-moving hunks of death, with expert rolls and side-slips. The two green wishbone shaped ships were parallel together, and as the Arwings flew between them, the idiotic gunners continued to fire. All of the bolts missed the three Arwings and slammed into the counterpart ships. Realizing this mistake somewhat too late, they stopped firing at the Arwings and began to shoot at the Great Fox. However, this is when the Great Fox also came into range, and began firing on the "right" ship (farthest away from the planet, the Great Fox and the Arwings are facing in a counter-clockwise direction in relation to the planet). The powerful main guns on the Great Fox II beat the ships shields like a drum, and Star Fox took this opportunity and looped around behind the ship.

Fox squinted a bit before the Arwings cockpit shield tinted automatically to compensate for the light the immense enemy ships engines were giving off. As the capital ship brought its rear shield power to the bow in order to defend against the Great Fox's assault and return fire, it left its engines vulnerable.

Krystal came over the comm; "Fox, they're forwarding their shields to the front, we should hit their engines!"

Fox simply nodded to himself and opened fire. He was satisfied to watch a glowing explosion erupt from the ships engines once Falco and Krystal's fire joined his, and the ship began to drift on an odd angle as their bright engines blinked out to blackness.

As the first ship began to drift, the Great Fox finally began to receive the pounding it was asking for from the other dreadnaught. ROB rapidly recalibrated the shield direction towards the other ship and began to target key spots on the ships armor, trying to find a weak spot in the ships defense. ROB called these kind of fights "Slugging matches.", the ships would whack on each other until one gives in, or in this case, the Great Fox would continue slamming on the unfortunate chunks of metal the Venom Navy was flying until Fox's nova bombs found its way through the things shields.

Fox looked at the other dreadnaught, and as he suspected, the loss of the other ship had eliminated the last reason it had to hold off its fire. It began to unload its energy turrets on the Great Fox and the Arwings separately, and Fox could tell by the impacts his lasers were making that they were constantly recalibrating their shields to keep the Arwings from getting a clear shot. Fox frowned to himself, the bridge crew of this particular ship actually had brains.

Krystal was bobbing and weaving through space as hunks of energy and plasma made close shaves around her Cloud Runner, she knew that if she got hit by one of the projectiles she would be toast, and she was rusty as a pilot. The dodging was really taxing her stamina. She kept her eyes on the ship to see where there was a gap in the shields; she threw lasers left and right, but it always contacted an energy field before gliding into the capital ship. They began to weaken however, as the Great Fox was still slamming on the enemy ship.

Falco cracked over the comm; "Krystal, you alright? Looks like you're having a har-"

He was cut off as Krystal felt a huge impact, which knocked her around the cockpit. She began to lose consciousness just before she realized what had happened, she had been hit.

Falco watched in horror as Krystal's ship erupted in a ball of plasma, but when the explosion stopped, the ship was still intact, save it being mostly black. It lifelessly began to fall towards the planet. "FOX! Krystal's been hit!"

Fox's eyes went wide with shock. They were on their first mission and things were already going badly. His mind raced, and he caught sight of the now black Cloud Runner as it shot towards the planet, Fox moved to chase the dilapidated fighter down into the atmosphere; he slammed on the boost and caught up to his downed love as fast as the Arwing would carry him, and both ships erupted in flame from the heat of re-entry.

Falco's heart was beating fast, Krystal was down and Fox was going down into the atmosphere after her. He took a second to dodge a hot ball of plasma that almost hit him, and looked at the ship. The Great Fox had taken its toll, and the once-intimidating Dreadnaught began to break up, and he watched in delight as it detonated. He noticed a blinking on his radar though, and 30 more massive dots appeared on the radar.

He jumped on the comm right away to contact Peppy. "Peppy! It's Falco; you were right old man, enemy reinforcements have just dropped in! Its time to rock!" He checked his radar again, and Peppy's forces began to jump in. He gulped, only 15 ships. Peppy was out numbered two to one.

Peppy looked out the front view screen of his massive dreadnaught class ship, the _Patriot._ He gulped as he looked at what he was about to deal with, there was 5 dreadnaughts, 5 battle cruisers and 5 fighter carriers, with 15 frigates acting as a frontal screen.

He didn't know what to do, there was no way he could win this fight, no matter how skilled his troops were, but he had to try. He gulped once more, and said quietly, breaking the fearful silence on the bridge. "Call for reinforcements." His communications officer simply nodded in confirmation and began typing at his console. The rest of the crew was silent.

He paced up to the front of the screen until his nose was almost touching the window. "I guess we're just going to have to be a hell of a lot better than they are. Give the order to prime combat systems, this is gonna be quite the ride."

**Macbeth**

**1:42 PM**

Fox had tears streaming down his face as he roared down into the atmosphere of Macbeth T, the dilapidated Cloud Runner had already broken the sky barrier and continued to plunge nose-first (which he thanked god for) towards the ground. He winced when he watched the fighter slam face first into the plains., Iit tumbled for 200 yards from the impact, and it stopped. Fox pulled on the brake and prepared to land, tears of fear becoming thicker and in greater amounts, as soon as his Arwing II touched down he jumped out of the cockpit and ran to the wreckage that was once the Cloud Runner.

The cockpit had been completely ripped off the wings and was lying on its side in the burnt grass and wrecked terrain, he ran over to the cockpit as fast as he could and tore the cover open with brute force that was supplied mostly by adrenaline. There he saw a wreck of a vixen., Hhis blue furred lover was horribly beaten, blood trickled down from several places in her right arm, and from her right temple. She was still in her pilots harness. He pulled her body out of the cockpit after unbuckling the harness and laid her face up in the grass and checked for a pulse, he smiled and started to cry harder when he felt a soft, but quick beat. She was remarkably, still alive.

He hit her across the face lightly to check if she would react, and when she didn't respond, he tried twice more. No results. She was unconscious. He ran to his Arwing and opened the cargo hatch pulling out the first-aid kit he always kept there. Throwing it open at Krystal's side, he pulled out some gauze and wrapped the wounds on her arms, legs, and her head with it, hoping the bleeding would stop long enough for the wounds to heal. Once he was satisfied she would be stable for the time being, he decided it would be best for him to get some more complete medical supplies in the city, that they were little more than two kilometers away from. He imagined if they planned on sending troops to check the wreckage, he would have seen them by now, and it should be safe to leave her there.

'_Don't you let go on me, Krystal.' _he thought to himself as he began to make his way to the city.

As he got to the border of the city he noticed, inconveniently for him, he noticed an abnormally high concentration of ground troops running about in the streets of the grubby, industrialized town. It was only natural there would be a lot of troops in order to enforce martial law, but there was so many here that it had almost seemed as if there was a million credits hidden in one of the houses, as the troops were running around doing what Fox believed was looking for something.

He watched from around the corner of an alley that was beyond the ruckus. Venom army soldiers of all species were ravaging the street, going from door to door, not even bothering to knock (except with their feet, unfortunately for the doors), and some even searching brick walls by feeling them around.

'_This is nuts, what could they be looking for?'_ he thought to himself.

He decided not to let his face be shown, and peered his head back around the alley. As soon as he faced his head down the alley he gulped; a menacing looking snow leopard was pointing the barrel of a blaster right between his eyes.

Fox could tell that this cat was not playing around; instead of pulling the trigger though, the leopard began to talk. "I know who you are, Fox McCloud. I'm with an underground resistance cell that has been hiding here ever since the attack. The blaster is just for security. Come with me."

Fox simply nodded, and the leopard lead him down (no longer at gunpoint, to the vulpine's relief) to a set of old stairs that lead into the basement of which, Fox had originally believed, was a normal residential apartment building.

Inside the basement, Fox was surprised what he saw. In the large, dusty hangar-sized room, were quite a few animals despite what Fox had thought about the size of the place when he entered. The first thing he noticed about the red-brick room was that every one of the animals was armed to the teeth; sniper rifles, machine guns, blasters, chain guns, you name it. There wereas a lot of simple, fold out chairs. Ammunition crates littered the corners of the rooms, and he noticed some were bearing the medics' red cross. There were stacked bunk beds lining the right side of the room, he guessed enough for fifty troops. He could easily fit 4 Arwings in this room, and he saw several tunnels that he assumed lead to key sections of the city.

Fox's jaw dropped; "You guys have been able to get all of these weapons here un noticed in only 2 days?!" The leopard smiled, walking ahead of him. Fox felt a bit awkward as most of the room's occupants were looking at him.

"Welcome to the former Macbeth legion, little man," said a purring feline girl's voice.

He recognized the voice he just heard and spun around to face it. It took a moment to recognize her, but to his amazement, he was looking at none other than Katt Monroe, the rogue pilot he had been rescued by at least twice during the Lylat Wars. She had gone over a radical change; she had dyed her fur pink again like she had it during the Lylat War, and let her hair grow so that her bangs were covering her left eye in a cute curl. She was wearing a red sleeveless hoodie and black baggy pants

"Katt! I almost didn't recognize you... Erm, what the heck is going on down here?"

After smirking at his first comment, she sat down on a nearby chair. "We're scrambling, Fox. Somehow we've been discovered, even thanks to my friend here's handy work planting distractions and false leads, they are searching the area for us. We were planning on getting out of this dump once and for all pretty soon." As she said this she gestured towards the leopard that dragged him in here.

Fox took another look at the snow leopard; he sported blue eyes that were covered with a pair of black sports shades, which for some reason he was wearing inside. He was wearing baggy black pants with his blaster hanging out of a simple loop in his belt, he had a white winter coat that was zipped up all the way to his neck. His messy black hair was kept down on his scalp only by the headband of a communicator he was wearing. The leopard's arms were crossed, and since Fox took his eyes off him last time he had a sniper rifle slung on his back all of the sudden. The tall cat looked at him with a smirk.

"Name's Captain Skye Grayson, mercenary and covert ops. Pleasure." The cats voice was a tenor rumble, fit for a stealthy predator, it reminded him of Panther, minus the extremely annoying arrogant tone the pirate tended to sport.

Fox nodded to the leopard, he saw no reason for introduction; there was probably not a single soul in this city who didn't know the name and face of Fox McCloud.

Katt stood up again, circling Fox. "So, what'd you come here for sweetie?"

Fox watched her circle him on his right. "Krystal crash landed about a klick out to the north of town, I came looking for medical supplies when Grayson here asked me to inspect the barrel of his blaster."

Both the leopard and the cat chuckled, and she finished her circle, stopping in front of him with her arms crossed. "So what'd you think, Cowboy, care to help us get out of here? We got a few medics and lots of supplies., Ii'm sure we can get her patched up before we extract."

Fox nodded. "Alright, I can get you guys out of here, but I need to make sure Krystal gets out of this alright okay."

Katt rested her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry Fox, me and Krys are good friends; I'll do what I can to help her out."

As she finished that sentence, she broke off of Fox and leaped up on the closest table. "Alright troops! We got a source of extraction courtesy of McCloud here and the Great Fox. Extraction is a kilometer north of here; Get packed up, all the weapons ammo and supplies you can carry, lets move boys!"

Upon saying this, an uproar started. Soldiers were running about, picking up backpacks and checking the magazines of their weapons. Fox took the opportunity to check the charge on his blaster. He noticed Skye calibrating the scope on his rifle.

Fox walked up to Katt who had just jumped off the table; "There are a lot of troops out there, some of yours might get gunned down if we just run out."

Katt smirked. "There's a passage here that leads right out of the city, we can use that to get out of the city limits. Then you can contact the Great Fox so we can get out of here."

As she said this, she started loading a fresh magazine in the machine gun that was strapped to her shoulder. Fox drew his own blaster, and Katt began to run for one of the tunnel exits at the other side of the room. "Alright everyone! This way, follow me!" The soldiers in the room complied, forming up single file behind her. Skye and Fox to her left and right.

Flashlights on, the soldiers eventually made their way to a dead end in the tunnels. Katt looked up and pointed her flashlight at a wooden cover for the tunnel. As the soldiers came to a stop, the tunnel was dead silent. Katt could have sworn she heard something above. "Hold up, let me check."

She slowly moved the cover to the side, and to her shock, there was a camp of troops waiting for them. They didn't see the tunnel cover open up, as it was hidden under the brush. They were in a dense evergreen forest, Venom army soldiers loafed around tents that were set up in the area, She did a quick head count; only 15. She had 20 troops with her.

She dropped down back into the tunnel. "Anyone got smoke grenades?" A black furred hare that was standing behind Skye handed her a pair of cylindrical smoke grenades.

She explained to the group. "I'm going to throw up these smokers, and that should give us the advantage we need to get the jump on the guys waiting up there. Use thermals so you can see through the smoke."

As she said this, all of the soldiers that had goggles or a helmet on started pressing whatever buttons they needed to, and many of their lenses had turned a bright red. Katt and Skye did the same with single-eye headsets that they had produced from pockets in their uniforms, Skye passed an extra to Fox, who put it on and activated his own thermal vision. In his right eye everything now appeared blue, with deep red signifying where there were people.

Katt pointed twice up the ladder to order the troops to head up behind her. She poked the cover open again. and threw the smoke grenades a short distance away from the cover. Short enough a throw so the soldiers didn't see them thrown, and long enough that they wouldn't know where they came from. As soon as they struck the ground, each one began emitting large amounts of gray smoke. There were sounds of panic from the Venom soldiers;

"What the fuck is that?!"

"Get your guns! Its an ambush!"

"Oh shit, what's going on?!"

"What the hell is that smoke!"

Once the smoke covered the exit to the tunnels she burst out of the cover, with Fox and Skye right behind her. She spotted target after target with her thermal vision and fired away with her machine gun, and she saw bodies drop as the loud rumbling of the gun made the chaos really start. Soldiers outside the smoke started returning fire into the gray mass, but had no idea of the source of the shooting, bullets and laser projectiles were harmlessly speeding by the soldiers that were pouring out of the tunnels.

Once there was only a couple enemies left, Katt yelled; "Lets go! Move everyone! To the extraction point!" they all began to fall behind Katt, Skye took the opportunity once they had got out of the smoke to raise his rifle to his eye, taking a snap shot while on the run. He could see the heat signature that signified the targets head scatter all over his view as the impact from the large bullet almost completely disassembled the victims skull.

The battle was over for now, and the 20 men and women kept up a quick pace following Fox to the Arwings landing site, heading towards the edge of the forest.

After a good twenty minutes on the move the company broke out of the forest and stopped at the wreckage of Krystal's Arwing which was nearby the forest border. Katt, Fox, and 3 medics that Katt had beckoned were running towards Krystal.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

_Krystal knew she was in trouble, she was in a lot of pain. She couldn't hear or see, she tried to move her limbs, but no result. As she tried she groaned in pain, she heard the groan though, she could still hear. She heard a skid across the ground, what could it have been? _

_A familiar voice sang into her ears. "Krystal? Krystal are you still with me? Comon, show me a sign!" _

_She groaned, and shifted her head, it was all she could do. She had thought it was only Fox beside her, but as she did this a few more voices burst into play. _

_"She's still alive! We have movement! Johnson, check the bleeding wounds for seal up, i'm gonna check for fractures..." _

_She recognized the next voice as well. "Krys? Krys its me, Katt! You're gonna be alright sugar, just hold on."_

_She thought hard for a moment past the pain, she knew who it was, it was Katt Monroe. She tried to smile, but the pain wouldn't allow it._

_Fox spoke up again; "We're gonna get you out of here, just relax."_

_Then she heard gunfire., Sshe didn't know form where., Ddid they hear it? She began to get frightened as she began to hear shouts before she finally blacked out again from the pain._

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Fox was covering up Krystal with his own body, he would take any fire that came in that direction; no one was going to hurt Krystal. He lifted his blaster with both hands on the grip and shot one of the oncoming enemy soldiers with a green bolt of energy, who almost did a back flip as his burnt body thumped on the ground.

More weapon fire began to fill the air; Skye was expertly firing his sniper rifle using one of the broken wings of the Cloud Runner for cover. Every time the large rifle boomed with one of its shots, an enemy's blood would spray from them like from a fountain and they would drop, usually with a scream. Katt was laying prone in the grass unloading the last of a machine gun clip, and spent the better part of 4 seconds attaching another belt-fed box cartridge and dragging the new belt into the chamber before pulling back the bolt in preparation for another rain of pain.

Fox flipped open the console on his wrist computer and spoke into it. "Falco! This is Fox! I'm on the ground with a resistance cell I found in the city, we need evac now!!!"

**Macbeth Orbit**

Falco was dodging fire from the three Frigates that decided to take the Arwing as its target, when he heard Fox's message.

"Shit, Fox, my wings are full up here. A, a fleet twice the size of Peppy's dropped in and is giving us the heavy end of the hammer!"

As he said this he swore to himself as an energy bolt slammed his shields, bringing them down to three quarters. He pointed the nose of his Sky Claw towards the offending frigate and fired off his only Nova Bomb. The explosion that resulted lit up the scene, and took another frigate that was too close for its own safety with it. Falco turned to the last of the three frigates that were attacking him and hit the boost.

**Arwing Crash Site**

Fox was shocked. S, so much for a flawless plan; it sounded like the space forces were even more busy than he was.

He contacted ROB instead. "Rob, I need help down here on the ground. Can you send me a Landmaster? Also, see if you can't get down here and lower the cargo lift, I have a platoon of troops that I need to get off of this rock!"

When he finished, a blaster bolt whizzed by his head, forcing him to duck. He saw the soldier that took the shot, and pegged him in the head with an impressive one handed snap shot. The soldiers head snapped back, and his body went limp. He heard a crackle on the communicator;

"AFFIRMATIVE, MOVING INTO MACBETHS ATMOSPHERE, TRANSPORTING LANDMASTER."

He grinned as the Tank teleported into view behind him, and some of the enemy troops that were rushing them turn tail and ran screaming as Fox jumped into its cockpit and started up the engine. The cannon of the fearsome vehicle turned to face the crowd of soldiers. Fox wasted no time and opened fire with the tanks main gun, and bodies of the fleeing troops flew through the air with a deafening explosion, along with pieces of the very terrain the suckers stood on. A couple of the brave soldiers remaining behind were decapitated by well placed bullets from Skye's rifle, and the rest mowed down by fire from the 12 other resistance troops that remained.

The battle on the ground was basically over, and Fox was just glad to have the gunfire stopped for a moment so he could look at the hurt vixen that still lay in the grass before him. He looked up when he heard a familiarly loud engine, and he saw the Great Fox II approaching quickly. He covered Krystal with his body as the wind picked up wildly from incoming ship, which stopped above them. The cargo platform unsealed on the bottom of the ship and began to lower, Fox watched as the Landmaster and both Arwings were vaporized and rematerialized onto the ramp within seconds, and Cornerian troops jumped on it as soon as it was low enough to climb onto. Fox picked up the limp Krystal bridal style and carried her to the ramp, which pressed down in the soil under it once it was lowered all the way. As soon as he stepped on it, the platform began to merge into the ship again, and the Great Fox, with a kick of its engines, began to move back into the sky.

As Fox carried Krystal to the ships med bay with Skye and Katt following, the walls began to speak with ROB's familiar robotic voice; "THE CORNERIAN STRIKE FORCE IN ORBIT HAS TAKEN 60% CASUALTIES, AND GENERAL HARE HAS ORDERED A FULL RETREAT. FALCO IS COMING IN FOR DOCKING."

Fox shook his head., Sso many losses. Even Krystal, someone so close to his heart, had been nearly taken away from him in this battle. It had only been the first skirmish he had been involved with in this war, and things were already looking grim.

"We're pulling out, ROB. Set a course for Corneria as soon as Falco docks... we've lost this fight."

**5:12 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Corneria Orbit**

Krystal had been awake for a couple hours, and her broken arm was in a sling while the bio-foam injected into her arm took effect on the now rapidly healing bone. Fox, Falco and Krystal were sitting in the med-bay, mostly silent. The silence was broken as the familiar high-heel shoes of Katt walked into the bay, followed by the near-silent Skye.

"Awwe, don't look so down you three, you did a hell of a job out there today. Saved me and my men's asses." She finished the sentence with a reassuring wink.

Falco looked up at the pink-furred feline. "Oh... hey Katt..." he said in a rather drole fashion. Katt was surprised, usually Falco would throw a smart-aleck comment at her every time he greeted her, so she supposed he wasn't in the mood. "Krys, you all right?"

Krystal looked up to Katt, smiled and nodded; "Mmhmm, thanks to you and Fox, I'll be in good shape for the next fight." Then she frowned and looked down to the floor, "I can't say the same about my poor Cloud runner, though. I really screwed up out there today.".

Fox wrapped his arm around his lover; "You did fine Krystal., Yyou haven't even been in the cockpit for five years, and surviving a crash like that is no small feat." This brought the smile back into Krystal's face.

Katt spoke again, sitting down in a chair beside Krystal's medical bed. "I actually came up with Skye because I wanted to know, if you guys needed a fourth pilot.? You guys know Ii'm capable, and I'm really sick of running ground missions. I wanna get up in the sky again, and blow something up!"

Fox smiled at this. "Of course, welcome to Star Fox, It's good to have you aboard, Katt. We could really use your help, especially after what happened today."

Falco didn't even react to this, he was still watching the floor, deep in thought. '_Shit, Ii'm pretty sure that was our first ever loss, this sucks! I can't imagine how Fox must be taking it though, Star Fox's first failure, and even Krystal got mashed up._'

Skye stepped up as well. Fox stood and raised his hand to Skye, who shook it. "I liked your work out there on the ground, Captain, you're a helluva shot."

Fox looked at Falco and Krystal. "Guys, this is Captain Skye Grayson; Captain, this is Krystal and Falco."

Krystal smiled at him and nodded, she was in no condition, with her arm and all, to be shaking anyone's hand. Falco raised a hand in a mock wave. "Yo."

Skye smirked. "Please, call me Skye. I actually have a similar proposition as Miss Monroe here... Aside from covert operations, I also do mechanics as a hobby, and I am trained as a pilot. I have been protecting Katt for 3 years as her hired bodyguard and personal spy, I would not be content leaving her side to go back to another ground team. I would be honored, Fox McCloud, to serve by your side.".

Fox crooked an eyebrow at this, this would be the first time the team went up to five pilots active. "Well, we sure could use the mechanic, and i'm sure I can get you up to snuff on using the Arwing... Sure, the more the merrier, I guess... Call me Fox."

Skye ginned. "You will not be disappointed, Fox. Thank you." He bowed his head, and left the bay.

Fox went to the bridge as Katt went to pick out quarters, Falco had gone down to the docking bay to refit his Sky Claw with another Nova Bomb as he had spent his during the battle, and Skye had gone with him to see if he couldn't fix up the Cloud Runner. Fox could smell his loves classic blueberry perfume following him up to the bridge, and he turned to see Krystal catching up with him. Fox slowed down to meet her side to side.

"Hey Krystal, you feeling alright?" She smiled at him.

"Yes Fox, Ii'll be fine, the bio foam should have me up and running within the next couple of days.". Fox smiled at this news as well. "I'm glad you're okay Krystal, you really had me worried for a while."

She looked at her feet as they walked. "I'm sorry Fox, it was my fault. I was careless out there, if you had not come down for me, I would have died down there in the wreckage...."

Fox stopped her with his finger to her lips. "Krystal, I love you; I wouldn't leave you down there, I swore to protect you until I was in my deathbed, and I almost failed today. If anyone should apologize, it should be me, for letting you get swatted out of the air like that."

She leaned her head on his shoulder. "I love you too, Fox, and thank you."

Once the two foxes got to the bridge, Fox jumped over the back of his captain's chair, landed in it sitting, and flipped open the console built into the right arm of his chair to dial up Peppy. Krystal stood behind him and leaned on the back of the chair with her good arm.

Peppy appeared on the screen; "Fox... I am sorry we couldn't fulfill our part in that battle, I should have brought more ships..."

Fox began to speak, interrupting him. "Peppy, this wasn't your fault, you were out gunned and out prepared, there was no way we were going to win that battle with what we had, especially with two of us out of the air.".

He looked up at Krystal who was leaning over the back of his chair and she smiled, before returning her attention to the screen.

Peppy spoke up again. "Even so, we need some time to recuperate the fleet. This time, I believe were going to need the entire fleet to make ground against this threat." His eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, before I forget! I transferred your payment for your services to your usual account, Fox; more than enough to make repairs and get new Arwings.".

Fox smiled at this, the first good news today. "Thanks Peppy, I'll put it to good use, I just picked up two new members of the team; and they're gonna need a set of wings."

**Two Hours Later....**

Skye and Falco were down in the docking bay working on using the new parts Fox had purchased into building a new Cloud Runner; a lot of the parts from the original still worked, but there was many crucial parts that needed to be replaced; for example, the entire set of wings.

Katt joined them, walking over to them at a relaxed pace coming out of the elevator. "Hey you two..." she giggled as she walked into the bay.

Falco turned to look. "What you so happy about?" he said with a sarcastic look.

"Fox just ordered two new Arwing II's for me and Skye, and we're gonna get them customized, aren't we Skye?"

Skye pushed himself from under the wing he was painting place on the new Cloud Runner, and replied in his traditional tenor growl; "I indeed had plans for my Arwing, if you were to draw up plans before I finished my own, I would be glad to work on yours as well."

Falco dropped his smart-aleck look and went back to work doing fine detail paint on the freshly fixed cockpit of the Cloud Runner. He was obviously jealous that they were going to get brand new fighters. Katt simply sat down on an ammunition crate as the docking bay doors began to slide open, two sparkling white Arwings floated slowly in the bay, neither of them had pilots; Katt assumed that they were being remote controlled by ROB. "I better get at those schematics, eh Skye?" With a wave, she left,; presumably for her quarters.

As Falco was finishing the paint, Skye was mesmerized by the two pristine Arwings that had floated in and landed in the center of the expansive room. Dropping the spray brush he was holding, he jumped aboard the left wing of the ship closest to him.

"I think I already know what Ii'm going to do with this... Falco, wanna give me a hand when you're done there?"

The bird turned to him. "Forget it! I wanna get some food into me then get some sleep.".

Skye sighed, but smiled. He would enjoy his time alone with this gorgeous piece of machinery in either case, he would turn it into a fighting machine that will make the Venom Navy shake in its boots.

((_Authors note: I think I rushed this one, if I made any stupid mistakes please message me so I can run it back over, there's a good chance I missed something retarded even after reading it through again. The plots picking up, and I hope you guys enjoy it so far!))_


	4. Chapter 3: First Choice

**Chapter 3**

**First Choice**

**12:20 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**July 30th **

**Great Fox Docking Bay, Cornerian Orbit**

Skye and Katt looked at their two finished machines in glee. It had been nearly a week's work, spending at least 5 hours a day down in the docking bay with their new Arwings to make them their own.

Skye was wearing an old black t-shirt for his mechanics work that had holes ripped in it in several places (but none big enough to allow any real amount of grease to get through to his fur) and a pair of older blue jeans that was now covered in black spots from the various oils and fluids from the Arwing's interiors. Katt was wearing a (now wrecked) grey tank-top and matching sweat pants.

Skye had called his own fighter the "Assassin" in mock of the job he was occupied with before being hired by Katt. It looked like a standard Arwing II, spare two extra smaller wings jutting out the back of the main ones that were mostly just large rudders. He had mounted twin laser cannons at the tips of the main wings instead of in their classic place in the wing mount pylons. Most of the modifications that Skye had made to the fighters were on the inside; moving the lasers for example allowed room for an impressive 3 smart bombs. However, in order to support the extra fire power, power from the shields needed to be re-routed to the weapons systems; Skye made a mental note to use the Assassin's superior maneuverability to compensate for a lack of shields.

Katt's fighter was scores more unique. They had named it the Cats Claw; the wings were entirely replaced with ones that curved towards the front of the vessel in a semi-circle, and plasma cannons were mounted on the outside edge of them. The cockpit was more rounded in a teardrop shape pointing at the front instead of the standard triangular shape. A nova bomb launcher with 2 shots ready was mounted in the front of the cockpit, and because of the huge firepower the ship boasted due to this coupled with the plasma cannons, the two had to remove its ability to charge-lock; which Katt never really found a use for anyway. There were small boosters lining the two curved wings (which took practically forever it install) that would allow intense and irregular maneuvering, such as 180 degree turns which could be preformed by kicking the bow-tip boosters and cutting the engines, causing the craft to spin "downwards" back towards the direction it came before kicking the main engine back in.

Katt wiped some sweat off of her brow and flicked her hand to her side. "Phew, that was lots of work! I can't wait to test them." She slouched over with her hands on her knees.

Skye chuckled. "I'm sure our work will have paid off, but before we take them out, I would rather take time for a shower; I don't want to get grease on the nice new pilots couch."

Katt looked up to the leopard. "That doesn't sound like such a bad idea either... Maybe I'll grab a shower too." When she finished this sentence the two made their way out of the docking bay aboard the spacious circular elevator, which with a push of a button by Skye, began to ascend to the ships upper levels.

Katt giggled to herself. "Falco must be so jealous, those fighters are gorgeous."

"I'm sure he prefers his Sky Claw in the end, he seems rather fond of the craft."

She turned to face the large cat. "Sometimes, that's all he is fond of really."

Skye paused, and half frowned looking down at the pink cat. "You like him don't you?"

Katt looked at her feet. "No, it's not like that. We used to be close partners back when we rolled with a little gang on Papetoon, we worked together pretty often. Smuggling, weapons sales, drug runs... Basically if it wasn't legal, we did it. We were pretty hard core, and most of the gang looked up to us. When he left, it just kind of fell apart, and I took up piloting."

Skye turned his frown into a smirk. "I don't take back my assessment."

Katt flushed red this time and looked at him angrily. "Well stuff your assessment, that jerk wouldn't know a girl likes him if she slept with him!"

"So you admit you like him?"

As he said this, the doors of the elevator slid open to an empty, white hall. A black sign hung from the ceiling which was marked "CREW QUARTERS".

She stormed down the hall ahead of him. "Just forget it!" Skye frowned, having

obviously spoiled his welcome on the matter. He simply head to his own quarters, and the door slid open for him automatically at his arrival.

The room was still mostly empty, save for some clothes he had picked up during their stay on Corneria that were hung up in the door-less closet at the right side of the room. There was also a queen size bed, and his rifle was propped on the wall beside an end-table in the corner that had several cartridges of .308 caliber ammunition scattered on it, with some stray bullets. The viewport of the room took up most of the far wall, and through out was a gorgeous view of the blue and white planet below.

Taking off his dirty clothes and throwing them into a basket in the corner, he grabbed a towel off of the bathroom door and stepped into the shower. The warm water helped ease some of the tension on his muscles for working so long. He got annoyed quickly trying to get the persistent grease out of his fur, but he eventually got himself satisfactorily clean. Getting out of the shower, he dried himself off before putting on a simple black padded vest with a pair of black jeans, with a pair of simple black work boots. Leaving his quarters almost the same time Katt did, they wandered to the Galley for some grub without a word. Katt seemed to be refreshed; she was wearing a red sleeveless hoodie again with a pair of black bellbottom pants, with high heel black boots.

Fox and Krystal were together in the Galley enjoying a large amount of macaroni and cheese that Krystal had whipped up. The two were mostly gloomy despite the delicious snack they were partaking in; they had been ever since what happened on Macbeth. As much as he hated to show it, Fox's faith in Krystal's flying ability had been shaken.

Krystal, feeling this through his mind, finally put down her fork. "Fox, it won't happen again all right? Now that I've felt combat, I'll make sure never to let that happen again. You've been depressed ever since the battle Fox, you need to move on."

Fox looked up from his macaroni. "Krystal, I'm scared shitless to bring you into the field now after that. I've seen you fly far better than that; I know you can. It doesn't help the worry though. I'm confident in you, I just can't help but panic when I see you in the line of fire."

Krystal smiled upon hearing this. "You'll be alright, then? Remember Fox, I have your back."

Fox got back to his macaroni with a smile, Krystal could tell he was feeling a bit more content with that off his chest. As she finished this thought the Galley's automatic door snapped open with a hiss, and Skye and Katt walked in.

They each grabbed a plate off of the kitchen counter and filled with macaroni, sitting at a table right beside Fox and Krystal's across from each other. Katt spoke up first, frowning at Krystal. "You look glum, Krystal, what's wrong?"

Krystal turned her chair a bit so she could see Katt and still be able to eat. "Fox is worried about what happened over Macbeth, and I don't blame him."

Fox had an annoyed look on his face. "I'm fine, Krystal."

Skye merely observed this conversation; he didn't need to read minds to tell that Fox was obviously in distress.

Katt replied to Krystal, "Awwe, don't worry about her Fox, that was a freak accident, and she pulled through all right. How could anything worse than that happen? She pulled out of something that no one should be able to survive from, with nothing more than a few cuts and a concussion."

Fox nodded his head. "I guess so, but that crash is going to be in my nightmares for a while to come."

Skye finally saw fit to speak, and said after swallowing some macaroni. "Your determination to protect her is strong, Fox, it would take no less than her being at the center of an atomic explosion to tear you two apart. You shouldn't worry."

Fox and Krystal both blushed at this, and Katt spoke up with a giggle. "As cheesy as it sounds from him, he's right. You should relax! We're definitely not going to make it all out of this war alive if we're so stressed all the time."

Fox looked up again, and with a shrug, said; "Ok, you're right, I'll try to relax. Nothin'll help the nightmares though."

Krystal looked back to him with a smile. "I'm glad you're so worried about protecting me, Fox."

He blushed again, and dug back into his macaroni without another word. For a few minutes the 4 ate in relative silence, Katt in particular predicting that Falco is still asleep at this late hour, which is picked up by Krystal causing the two to giggle. Skye and Fox both look at them in query.

Fox, looking at Krystal, says ".... What's so funny?"

Krystal stops giggling for a second to answer. "Me and Katt are just wondering if Falco is still snoozing."

Skye rolls his eyes. "I suppose one of us should wake him up."

Katt stands up with her empty plate and walks to the counter. "I volunteer, just wanna see his reaction."

Krystal looks at her for a couple seconds more and starts laughing full on this time. The two guys look at them like they're crazy, and Katt leaves the room, and Krystal giggles a last little bit as she brings her plate back to the kitchen. Skye and Fox exchange looks of wonder.

Katt heads to Falco's room, and on her way there, takes her top off leaving nothing more on the upper half of her body in a tight-fitting white bra and slings her shirt over her shoulder. She wore a smirk; '_this is going to be hilarious' _she thought.

As she got into Falco's room, as she predicted, he was snoring loudly with his wings and legs spread across the bed. Katt snuck up to him and he didn't awaken, despite the loud hissing of the door snapping open. She snuck up into his bed beside him and put herself in a seductive position facing him, and having her face extremely close to his.

Falco was having a good dream, he was soaring through space in his Arwing, racing through various checkpoints at ridiculous speeds. As he passed by ship after ship, his speedometer continued to climb. 1000, 1100, 1200, 1500, 2100, 2800, 3500, 4500....

"_Falco...."_

Then the Arwing was gone, it was dark again.

_"Falcoooo..."_

Falco peeled his eyes open to see a mound. He wasn't sure what it was yet, but as his eyes slowly shifted into focus it became more clear. Apple? Hill? Pillow? No, after looking at it for a few more seconds, it was certainly a boob. That didn't make any sense, as Falco had not attended any parties whereas he would have been drunk, nor did he pick up any girls, or any other situation which would end with him waking up to the sight of a boob, especially one this large. No, he was in the Great Fox if he recollected correctly.

Then whose boob was that?

He slowly bent his head back to look up at the face of this boob's owner, and what he saw made him boil up with rage. "KATT! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING IN MY BED!?" he snapped upright, and the feline began to laugh hysterically.

She couldn't believe the look on his face, she started to cry she was laughing so hard. Even as he scrambled out of bed to get a pair of pants on cursing and tripping, it only made the situation more hilarious. She laughed harder as he tripped over the loose leg of his pants while jumping to get them on, and he shouted "FUCK!" as his face slammed the floor.

Falco finally got his wits together, with clothes on, and looked at the offending pink fur ball, yelling "What the hell was that?! I didn't get drunk last night, did I? I mean, SHIT! Tell me we didn't, YOU KNOW..!"

"We didn't what?"

He finished zipping up his jeans, he was wearing a sloppily put on black long-sleeve shirt. "We didn't have sex!"

She put her hands behind her head and leaned on the headrest, still giggling. "You slept in, stupid. Thought I would give you a wake up call." She winked as she said this, and Falco flushed red even more. She wasn't sure whether it was a blush or rage in its pure form. Probably both, she guessed. "Why, you don't like my boobs?"

Just when she thought it wasn't possible, he flushed red further. "Damn it, you know what I'm talking about!"

"Remind me, Falco."

He simply growled and stormed out of the room, shaking his head violently, turning around twice trying to remember which way the elevator was. Katt yelled at him from the room; "Your shirt's on backwards!". She stood up and put her shirt back on, with a triumphant look on her face. Krystal would love looking at this memory when she next saw her.

As Falco finally reached the Galley, Krystal started laughing as soon as she looked at the disgruntled bird. Fox and Skye chuckled a bit too, as Krystal had explained Katt's plan while she was out.

Falco almost yelled "Was this your idea, Krystal?!"

Skye retorted, "It appears to have worked well enough."

Krystal replied to Falco, "No, all Katt's, I just found it hilarious."

Falco's face was still flushed red, and he walked towards the sweet smelling macaroni and cheese bowl that was still sitting on the kitchen counter, before they were interrupted by the walls of the room. The voice of ROB intruded on the scene; "ALERT. INCOMING DISTRESS CALL FROM GENERAL PEPPY HARE. PRIORITY OMEGA. All 4 of the pilots snapped their attention and broke out of their laughs, priority Omega meant that there was a situation where lives were at stake when it came to answering the distress call as quickly as possible; Fox had assumed the worst.

When they got to the bridge, Katt was already there sitting on a chair at the communications panel. ROB however brought the message up automatically once all five pilots were in the room. Peppy's face appeared on the screen, he looked distressed, and red alarm lights turned the colour of the picture. "Fox! Dash's fleet decided to move in before we could recuperate, and reinforcements are an hour away; but it could be too late. We need your help over here, we're getting pounded by a fleet almost 4 times our size in the orbit of Fichina!"

Fox jumped into his captains chair and opened the arm-rest console where he started to punch in a course for Fichina. "Hang on Peppy, we'll be there soon!"

ROB interrupted them, "SECOND DISTRESS CALL COMING FROM AQUAS. CODE BLACK."

All of the pilots, including Peppy's, had dropped their jaws. This was ridiculous. Skye broke the silence that fell upon the bridge. "There is no defense force at all in the Aquas orbit. If we do not move to assist them, they will surely be taken.".

Peppy spoke up now, his voice in a panic. "Slippy can hold his own for an hour, we need to hold Fichina or Venom will have a foothold on Corneria!"

Fox shook his head, this decision was not going to be easy. "Peppy, I made a promise to Slippy. We need to go to Aquas. You should probably pull your fleet back to the Asteroid belt for now until reinforcements can arrive, I can't help you."

Peppy rose his voice in protest. "Fox, are you going to let all these men die?"

Fox stood up at this, completely enraged. "I can't believe you just said that! I would never abandon my friends, you know that! You have a fleet, Slippy is on his own against a Venom armada! I don't care what you do, but we are going to Aquas and we will come for you as soon as Aquas is secure, and that is the final word on the matter!"

Krystal winced, she could feel his rage through her telepathy. This was the first time in years he had gotten so angry, and the first time that it was ever directed against Peppy, who had known Fox since he was a child. Peppy looked just as angry now. "Fox, I am the general of the Cornerian army; I asked you as a friend now I will hand it down as an order; get to Fichina and back my troops!"

This made Fox snap, and both Falco and Skye were also pissed off at this. "You are NOT my commanding officer, Star Fox is a mercenary unit and I will decide where we go, not you! I already said I'll return once we are done at Aquas, now we're just wasting time, each second that goes by is another chance Slippy is dead, and worse, his unborn child!"

Peppy began to protest again, this time in plea, but Fox gave ROB a nod and the signal winked out. The bridge was silent, as the Great Fox began to move into position for the hyperspace jump to Aquas. Fox started to walk towards the door of the bridge. "To your fighters, lets lay down the law on these bastards."

As they ran down the halls of the Great Fox, Krystal caught up to Fox. "You didn't mean that Fox, I know you didn't. You shouldn't have yelled at Peppy like that."

Fox kept his look forward. "He asked me to abandon Slippy for a god damn strategic position. I've never been angry at him before, but ever since he became the General he's changed. I don't think I'll be able to see eye-to-eye with him anymore." Krystal sighed as they ran, she knew it was true. That was probably the end of Peppy and Fox's friendship.

Once they reached the Arwings, the 5 pilots jumped into their cockpits without a word, and all began to run through their pre-flight checklists. Fox spoke over the comm; "All craft report readiness."

"Krystal here, systems hot and ready."

"This is Falco, ready to rock."

"Katt here, all green and ready!

"Skye here, ready."

ROB came over the intercom which sounded within each Arwing. "ENTERING AQUAS ORBIT IN 3 MINUTES. PREPARING SHIP FOR COMBAT. GOOD LUCK."

**1:12 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**6:12 AM Atlantis Time**

**Aquas Orbit**

Slippy was beginning to panic, he knew off by heart how much time it took for the Great Fox to get from Corneria to Aquas, but it was taking way too long for them to get here. He was dodging shot after shot from fighters, and the orbiting dreadnaught that was raining death on his home of Aquas. With no ships of its own, Aquas was defenseless to its assault. Slippy caught eye on a 12 fighter squadron towing huge, orange barrel-like depth charges down to the planet, and Slippy chased them down. As soon as he was within range, he squeezed the trigger and plasma shots jumped out of the cannons on his ship and plowed through several of them, and caused their depth charges to detonate; soon the whole squad was awash with fire and plasma as their charges were set off. Slippy broke off of them and looked to the next group as he started to panic further; there was too many for Slippy to shoot down before they dumped their payloads into the ocean; and each one that got past his guns meant one more dead Aquasian family.

As he ripped down another group, his radar showed another large blip appear in the planets orbit, but to his delight, it was green as opposed to the red that signified enemies that had filled most of the space on the display. Fox had not abandoned his promise.

Aboard the Great Fox, the docking bay doors began to hiss as they slid open slowly. Fox almost winced at what he saw, the ship that came into view was built although its very purpose was to bomb planets into submission. It was just one long green rectangular prism, with a huge ion engine on the back. The bottom surface of it was coated with huge weapons, but Fox noticed that the ship didn't appear to have any weapons that could be used against other ships on the ships other faces. The guns on the bottom were pouring red laser death down on the planet like a relentless rain storm. Fox assumed that Dash must have assumed Fox would go to assist at Fichina and this attack would be ignored; he didn't count on Slippy calling Fox, though.

Fox spoke up onto the comm while the doors were sliding open. "Skye, I didn't get a chance to test you out so I'm putting a lot of faith into you here."

Skye's low growl answered. "If it makes you feel any better, captain, I was part of the team that built the original Arwing."

Fox cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, well, ok then. Show me what you got."

As he said this the doors finished sliding open, the 5 Arwings shot out of the bay like bullets from a rifle. "Falco, Skye, you two keep fighters from hurting the Great Fox as it bashes that bomber ship. Krystal and Katt, you're on me. We're going to try to stop those depth charges."

"Skye here, on it."

"Falco, moving into position to support the Great Fox".

"I got your back, sugar."

"Krystal here, moving in to cover you Fox."

The Cats Claw and the Cloud Runner caught up to Fox's left and right respectively, and the three erupted in flame as they shot down into the blue planets atmosphere.

Falco and Skye each formed up on either side of the Great Fox, flying slightly ahead of it. The massive disruptor cannons of the ship erupted with deadly blasts of yellow energy that slammed into the shields of the big bomber ship, causing it to tilt back in protest of the pounding it was taking. Fighters began to jump out of it like wasps out of their nest, and shoot towards the oncoming assault carrier. Skye and Falco jumped to the chase, running head to head with the oncoming fighters. Skye broke in on Falco's cockpit speakers; "Time to give the Assassin its field test."

Falco replied sarcastically, "Think it can keep up to the Sky Claw?"

Skye chuckled at this. "A brand new prototype custom Arwing II against your 10 year old single laser bird? I'm pretty sure I can."

Falco grumbled. "Lets see how these buggers like multi-lock."

As the two rushed into the cloud of fighters, Falco could hear the wonderful music that was the multiple lock-on beeps from his targeting computer. Just before the fighters over shot them, Falco let go of the trigger, and bright green balls of death fired in every-which direction, causing bright explosions to light up the dark Aquas sky.

Slippy watched as 3 green blips soared down into the atmosphere on his radar, and smiled. These creeps were about to get taught a very painful lesson. Just as he finished this thought however a huge splash from the ocean just under his fighter provoked a horrible rumbling in the craft, and Slippy's eyes shot open as a huge tentacle rose out of the waves, and shot at him to grip the Arwing in a tight coil. He was knocked unconscious by the impact as his Arwing was dragged under the waves....

Fox watched as the blip that represented Slippy's fighter on his radar blinked out, and Fox feared the worst; this was the second time that a friend has gone down in the line of fire. Krystal cracked over the comm; "Fox, Slippy was just dragged under the water, and I lost contact with his mental signal, he's unconscious." As she said this, her guns fell upon 2 fighters that were dragging around an explosive a piece, and the lasers she fired had caused their charges to detonate. The three Arwings shot through the flames, and split off from Fox.

Katt spoke up; "Uh oh, these things can't take extremely low depths to look for him. We can only go under water so far before the pressure is too much for the Arwings. If he's sinking..."

Fox came up with an idea. "Wait, I know what can take that kind of pressure. We still have the Blue Marine on the Great Fox, don't we ROB?"

ROB's voice came in. "AFFIRMATIVE. THE BLUE MARINE IS STILL COMBAT WORTHY, AND READY TO LAUNCH AT ANY TIME. WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO HAVE IT PREPARED?"

Fox returned. "Yeah, get it ready to go, I'll be up shortly. I need to see what the hell is going on under the surface. Katt, Krystal, you two will need to handle the bombers on your own."

Krystal spoke; "Got it, you can count on us Fox."

Fox's Arwing pulled back into the atmosphere at full throttle, and once the flames around his ship had subsided, the Great Fox was in view again, it was hammering the bomber with all of the strength it's main guns could put out. Fox could see the chaos that Skye and Falco were causing; amongst countless explosions there was a whole cloud of dots flying around like a pissed off army of wasps. Fox couldn't make any details of the battle from where he was. He boosted his way to the Great Fox as quickly as possible; there was no time to lose if he were to save Slippy in time.

Skye shot between lasers that threatened to scratch his beautiful creation; darting in between gaps in the thick laser fire like a dance. Skye preferred it on the ground, but he always had a natural aptitude for flying; one he inherited from his endless hours testing the newest prototype fighters that he had a hand in designing. His lasers poured death upon a group that had been unfortunate enough to drift into the path of his targeting reticule; and he smirked as the three fighters were vapourized. He pulled back the yoke and his fighter pulled into a U-turn that would bring him to face the fighters that were now dashing towards the Great Fox. As he spun around he could see Falco's Sky Claw barely catching up, unleashing death from its brilliant multi-lock laser cannon.

Krystal and Katt split up, and were dumping lasers and plasma respectively on ships that were dive bombing the ocean below and trying to drop the heavy explosives they were towing. Katt was heading for a T-bone with a single file line of bombers, and carefully aimed for the depth charge the front fighter was carrying. She lined up her aiming reticule carefully just in front of the ship and pulled the trigger, then hit her new underside wing boosters which caused her Arwing to shoot upwards overshooting the line of fighters without having to tilt. To her satisfaction, the balls of superheated plasma slammed into the charge and exploded; followed by the fighters behind that one being caught in the explosion as well causing their own depth charges to go off, causing the whole line of fighters to go out in a furious chain reaction. "That's how its done, ladies and gents! One shot, 12 kills!"

"Nice shot!" Krystal cheered as she spotted another group directly above her, about to drop their own charges. To avoid being bombed she pulls up into a summersault, firing on the bombers above her. The twin lasers strike target after target as she completes the summersault, and the debris from the fireball of death falls harmlessly into the oceans behind her as she boosts ahead to the next set of targets.

Fox sped into the docking bay and slammed on the brakes just fast enough to prevent hitting the back wall of the bay at 400 km/h, bringing the fighter in for a land. Jumping out of it, he sees the Blue Marine being lowered via chains from the roof of the bay, and slowly being brought to the opening of the room. Fox looked out of the docking bay towards the battle that was happening in orbit, hoping everyone is still alright. As he finished that thought he saw the bomber begin to break up from the intense punishment it took from the Great Fox, and he grinned in delight as it detonated. He put his hand to the headset on his ear and hit the talk switch. "Skye, Falco, good work you two; go down to the surface and help Krystal and Katt." Letting go of the button, he followed the chained up submarine as it made its move towards the bay doors.

He got two "Rogers" as the Blue Marine came into position. "READY FOR SUBMERSIBLE LAUNCH; MOVING INTO POSITION ON THE PLANETS SURFACE. EXTRACTION POINT IS SLIPPY'S LAST KNOWN LOCATION. SUGGEST PREPARING FOR LAUNCH."

Fox complied, jumping into the open side-panel on the old submarine. The Blue Marine was shaped like any other submarine, but more sleek, with straight edges turning to a point in the bow instead of juts being a cylinder, and obviously was smaller being meant for a single pilot. Much of the paint had been rubbed off with age, as it had not been used since the first Lylat War. It was loaded with twin lasers and a torpedo launcher that used a rapidly recharging power cell that allowed unlimited ammunition. The side panel closed as he clambered in. He got comfortable amongst the dusty old controls as the front view screen came online with a view of outside the Great Fox. The submarine was set down on a rail that would launch him out of the bay into the ocean, and locked into place. He watched as the Great fox slowly descended into the planets atmosphere, revealing a top-down view of the oceanic planet. The Great Fox leveled out near the waters surface, and once Fox could see the surface of the water through the open bay, he felt a jerking impact as the craft was thrown at full speed out of the bay along the launching rail and nose-first into the ocean. The submarines smaller G-diffuser helped the impact, but still shook Fox around quite a bit as he pierced the water.

The Blue Marine slowly sunk down to the depths for 30 seconds before he kicked in the engines and the bow lights, what Fox saw was Atlantis; or what once was Atlantis. The city had taken many brutal hits from the depth charges companied by intense bombing from the ship in orbit; and once were beautiful lit up glass spheres of air pockets under the ocean were now smashed and crushed. He could spot only 5 to 10 undamaged golden spheres remaining in the water, and even from his distance he could see that they were packed with refugees from other parts of the underwater city. Fox hoped hard for Slippy and Amanda's safety as the submarine jumped into motion, shooting through the water like a bullet.

The dark cockpit was only illuminated by the lights from LED's highlighting various buttons on the Blue Marine's dashboard, and Fox felt a shiver down his spine as he looked at what the headlights of the submersible allowed him to see. His heart sank as he saw different animals corpses floating to the surface; not only frogs and fish, but some mammals that must have been visiting the city were lifelessly floating upwards to the surface, some with missing limbs, and all with shocked eyes wide open in fear before meeting their deaths. Fox's heart picked up pace as his radar found Slippy's Bullfrog. "I got a lock on the Bullfrog, guys!"

Krystal's voice filled the cramped cockpit. "Fox, there's something wrong. I'm picking up a non-sentient life form down there near Slippy, it's huge! Be careful!"

He put the Blue Marine in full speed as he closed in on the blip, he could hear bumps on the side of the submarine as the bodies of the sunken tomb were thrown out of the way of the speeding vessel; and before long the creature Krystal had predicted came into view, taking up the full span of his headlights. A huge octopus-like creature had the Bullfrog in the clasp of one of it's tentacles, and it was smashing the fighter on the rock below, Fox could see the ships shields flicker in protest every time the fighter struck the ocean floor. Fox wasted no time in targeting the creatures head with a torpedo; and as the brightly lit projectile launched at the creature it turned to face Fox losing interest in the Bullfrog for the time being. The fighter begins to float back up to the surface. The torpedo smoked the creature right in the face, which begins to flail its tentacles madly as it rushes towards the Blue Marine, enraged by the explosion that had drawn a deep score of blood from it.

"Shit, team! There's a bio weapon down here!"

Krystal is the first to respond, "Dash must have gone completely insane to have developed a bio weapon! That was his grandfathers trademark. Do you need help down there, Fox?"

As she said this the Blue Marine was rocked by a huge impact as one of the creatures tentacles sent the ship crashing into some of the rubble from one of Atlantis' many domes. Fox recovers, and manages to shoot away from the next blow the octopus tries to land hitting the boost. He targets the thing with another torpedo, which strikes home in the creatures torso section. It cringes in protest before attacking again, only to come up with empty water as the nimble submarine dashed out of the angry creatures path.

"I'm alright, Krystal, this thing doesn't seem so smart. Is the bomber situation clear?"

"Yes, the attack has stopped."

"Ok, i'm going to give you a set of coordinates, I want you to drop a smart bomb at it."

"Ok."

Fox put his plan into action and led the creature on a chase through one of Aquas' underwater canyons, and it followed bluntly, using its huge tentacles to completely destroy rock faces and underwater buildings that got between it and his prey. Fox punched in a place on the radar. "ROB, send these coordinates to Krystal's Arwing, quickly! ROB got to work transferring the data to Krystal, and Fox hit the boost, shooting towards the spot as fast as the Blue Marine would carry him. "Ok, Krystal, on my mark."

Krystal flew towards the coordinates that lit up on her radar, and circled it, waiting for the order. "Ready Fox!"

as Fox flew through his designated spot in the water, he shouted "Fire!"

Krystal hesitated. "But Fox, I'll hit you!"

Fox practically barked over the comm channel; "Trust me, just shoot!"

She faced her fighter towards the coordinates and lined up the targeting reticule with the dot that was highlighted on her cockpit screen before punching her smart bomb trigger. "Alright, firing!"

Fox continued to boost past the point, and his radar lit up with a bomb lock on, trailing the heavy explosive down into the water. The projectile was right on target, and shot through the water right towards the point, stopping right on mark when the bombs momentum could carry it through the water no longer. The octopus had stupidly followed Fox right into his trap, and it rammed into the explosive. The explosion rocked the Blue Marine, and when Fox circled around to check on the damage, all he could spot through the mass of boiled water and bubbles was separate limbs of the creature floating about, and the water was dyed red from its blood. Fox sighed, he was too exhausted by worry for Slippy and Amanda to celebrate. "That's one monster down. I'm going to look for Amanda, someone pick up Slippy." He got to work marking where the Bullfrog had been dropped on radar.

Fox started to search the wreckage of the city, looking for any sign of Slippy's wife. He knew where their dome was located, and he was in that area, but pieces of the place were scattered about the area, and he could see no signs of life. His heart began to sank more and more as he circled the area. Suddenly, he felt a bump on the side of the craft, and he began a full U-turn around to face it. The limp body of Amanda Toad was illuminated by the bright lights of the submersible, slowly ascending to the surface. "Got her! ROB, mark my position and get the cargo bay ready to lower NOW! There is NO TIME!"

**Great Fox Medical Bay, Aquas Orbit**

**1 Hour later**

Fox was pacing back and forth in the med bay of the Great Fox as Krystal was checking Amanda with her telepathy for signs of life. Slippy she had already determined was simply unconscious and would awaken soon. Falco was sitting on the spare medical bed with Katt beside him, facing the ground waiting silently, Skye was busy hooking up a heart monitor to Amanda, and several other machines that would help keep an eye on the injured frog, who seemed to be devoid of cuts; despite a nasty injury to the head and several bruises all over her body; thankfully none of the bruises were in her stomach area, which appeared unhurt. Krystal's eyes glowed blue and her right hand was on Amanda's forehead.

After Krystal finished "scanning" Amanda, she took her hand off of her and sat down on the med bed behind her. "She's alive. In a coma, but otherwise alive. She should wake up eventually, but it may be anywhere from a couple weeks to a month..."

Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief, Slippy had at least something to be thankful for when he woke up. Fox was boiling with rage in his mind with plans to eviscerate Dash when he saw him. Krystal spoke up; "I don't understand, the Dash we knew would never resort to war, never mind mass slaughter with bio weapons. He's starting to turn out like Andross did."

This angered Fox even more. "I should have killed the bastard when I learned he was Andross' grandson, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

Skye was looking at the ground after he finished getting Amanda prepped for coma hibernation. "Perhaps Andross is affecting his mind some how?"

Katt was surprised by this comment. "That's rather insightful and all, but Andross has been dead for years."

Fox looked up to Katt. "That never stopped him before."

Skye explained; "It would explain some parts of our problem anyway, why he would act so rash about something so insignificant as a council decision, and why he would be developing bio weapons to use for his invasion. Even some of his war strategies are the same."

Krystal was deep in thought now, with her hand holding up her chin. "It would make sense, it's just too much of a coincidence that he would be a peaceful and successful ruler that everyone loves one day, and a murdering tyrant the next."

Fox stood up, with intention to leave the bay. "Possession or not, he's going straight to hell for this." The room fell silent, there was no arguing that. "When we do confront him, whether this theory is right or not, don't hesitate when the time comes. Just act." He found himself reminded of Wolf, who had originally told him that very line. He wondered what the old lupine was doing now.

As Fox turned to walk out the door, a grunt erupted from the injured Slippy and he awoke with a pained look on his face. Everyone snapped eyes in his direction, and Krystal ran to his side. "Careful Slippy, you took quite a beating."

The young toad shook his head. "No, it's ok, I'm alright." but Krystal insisted. "Lay down, now."

He got up out of the bed anyway. "Is Amanda ok?" As he said this, he saw her body lying on the medical bed beside his own, a tear came to his eye and he rushed up to her side.

Fox walked up to his old friend and put his hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, buddy. She's just in a coma, and the baby is all right. She'll wake up in a couple weeks, probably."

Slippy gripped Amanda's hand and held it between his own, and he started to cry more. "Fox, we're gonna find Dash, we're gonna kill him, right?"

Fox stepped back from him. "Yeah. He's going straight to hell for what he did today... I promise."

Everyone in the room fell silent for a minute, the sight of Slippy mourning the near-death of his lover was too much to bear, and Fox could only imagine how bad it could have been if they had decided to help Peppy at Fichina instead.

Slippy finally let go of his lovers hand and wiped the tears out of his eyes. "I'm coming with you. I swear i'm gonna make that pink faced bastard pay. For Amanda's sake, for Aquas' sake." He looked up to Fox. "Was there a lot of survivors?"

Fox simply let his head hang and shook it, Katt took the baton and answered the question. "Atlantis was bombed to the ground, it didn't look like there was much left, just a few bio spheres left. All of the other cities are mostly intact though... I'm sorry, hun."

Slippy clenched his fist. "I'll avenge them, Fox, I'll avenge them all." He stormed out of the room. Fox understood his feeling, he had felt the same way when his parents died at the hands of Andross, this war had just become very personal for both Slippy and Fox.

Fox nodded to Katt, Krystal and Skye, and the three left Amanda alone to her sleep. As they walked down the hall to the bridge, Fox yelled at the walls; "ROB, set a course for Fichina. Time to see if Peppy made it through that fur ball alright."

"AFFIRMATIVE. IT MAY BE ADVISEABLE TO BE READY FOR LAUNCH."

Fox looked to his team mates. "You heard him, this day isn't over yet. Everyone back to your Arwings!

_((Authors note: A bit shorter than the other two, but I took a lot of time organizing my ideas about the plot. I hoped you like the Aquas battle, I'm still struggling to make the air battles sound interesting. Tips and reviews appreciated, especially if I made a stupid mistake like I did at the beginning of chapter one! I'll get chapter 4 done soon as well, looking at my plan it and chapter 5 will prove to be much more exciting, as the true meat of the plot begins to unfold. See you next time!))_


	5. Chapter 4: Backlash

**Chapter Four**

**Backlash**

**July 30th**

**2:31 Lylat Standard Time**

**Orbit of Fichina**

As the Great Fox jumped out of hyperspace in the orbit of the frozen planet, the six Arwings were quick to fire once more out of the ships docking bay. Slippy's Bullfrog had joined the fray, as the frog was itching for his first taste of revenge on the Venom Navy for what they had done to his home of Aquas, and his wife.

Fox took a quick look at the situation as the six ships sped to the planet, it was not looking good. The once nearly-quarter green planet had turn into a fully white frozen sphere again, the terraforming facility must have been bombed during the battle. Peppy's reinforcements had come, but the Venom Navy seemed to be too tough; there was still twice as many Venom ships then Cornerian ships, and the two sides were exchanging volley after volley of heavy laser fire. Debris from destroyed ships littered the atmosphere. "Looks bad over there, let's give our boys a hand"

He got five "affirmatives" through his headset, and they formed up in a broad-head arrow formation, Fox and Krystal in front, Falco and Katt further wide, with Skye and Slippy taking up the rear even further apart. Fox quickly spotted the familiarly vast _Patriot_ in a slugging match with two persistent enemy dreadnaughts, and made them his first target. "See those two dreadnaughts engaging the Patriot? Krystal, Falco and I will take one, Slippy Skye and Katt take the other!"

Falco and Krystal formed up to Fox's left and right sides, and Skye spoke up over the comm, "Alright, Slippy and Katt form up on me, let's concentrate our fire on the far one." As he said this Slippy caught up to his left side and Katt his right.

As Fox, Krystal and Falco shot towards the closest enemy ship to them, the musical tones of target locks began to sound as Fox's laser cannons began to charge a bright green laser bomb, the lock on was targeted right for the ships engines. If they made this shot right, they could cripple the ship before it could even move its shields to guard its vulnerable engines; the ship hadn't detected them yet it seemed.

As they got close, the three broke off in separate directions and let loose their payloads, the laser bombs flew at the boosters of the wishbone-shaped ships and detonated, and soon the ships rear end was awash in green and blue light as they began to detonate. The ship shifted in protest, and its orb-like shields flickered out. Red laser death erupting from the Patriot began to turn the ship into swiss cheese.

Skye, Slippy and Katt approached their own target, but Skye was the only one priming a laser bomb, the other two were lining up shots with their plasma cannons; they didn't have lock on capability. "Alright, as soon as we get in range, open up on it."

They wouldn't have it so easy. The ship had been alerted to Star Fox's presence by the destruction of it's twin dreadnaught; and it's shields were now guarding its rear as well. The laser bomb and the 4 streams of plasma fire shot by the three Arwings only hit raised shields as they passed by. Thankfully, the ships guns were still focused on the Patriot, which was now moving in closer to the dreadnaught.

Skye cursed to himself quietly. "We're gonna have to get through the things shields before it does some serious damage to the Patriot."

Just as he said this, Fox Falco and Krystal shot into the scene. Fox ordered "Alright, prime smart bombs. If all six of us nail it at once it should buckle."

The pilots did as they were told, Skye's group made a quick U-turn (none as fast as Katt's insane on-the-spot redirection) and formed back up with Fox. They were back in their arrowhead formation, and the 6 all began to lock in coordinates for a smart bomb launch.

Fox spoke up again. "Alright everyone, fire on my mark..."

They were approaching the hind of the ship quickly, lasers from the dreadnaughts rear guns were starting to try to shoot them down to no success.

"3.....2....1...."

They all had their fingers on their triggers.

"FIRE!"

6 trails of red jumped out of their respective Arwings in almost perfect unison, and they all zoomed in on the dreadnaughts engines. Once they impacted, the ships shields flickered and winked out, the 6 Arwings broke off in their own directions as the ship began to break up under the stress of the explosion. The Patriot's guns finished the job.

There was still more to do, smaller enemy cruisers were engaging Peppy's, and a thick complement of fighters. Fox rang in on the comm; "Alright, those that still have bombs left, target those cruisers. Once they're down everyone focus on those fighters, lets clean this mess up."

The other 5 did what they were told, boosting into the fur ball and letting loose with their weapons. Falco was the only one that went straight to dealing with fighters; and his multi-lock cleaned out clouds of them at a time. 9 smart bomb strikes on cruisers and 92 downed enemy fighters later, the battle was done.

Clouds of debris filled the atmosphere, broken up ships of both Venomian and Cornerian design now derelict for eternity floated in orbit of the frozen ball Fichina. The Great Fox II, The Patriot, and 3 damaged Cornerian battle cruisers were the only ships remaining when the carnage was done; fighters poured back into their respective docking bays and the Arwings followed suit, landing in the docking bay of the assault carrier without a word. The devastation here was beyond comprehension.

Once all 6 Arwings had landed, the docking bay doors slowly began hissing closed. Each pilot began to power down their ships and crack open their cockpits; Fox was the first one out followed by Krystal.

Fox took another look out the docking bay doors as they slid to a close, Krystal ran up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Fox, don't regret your decision. You did everything you could."

He turned to her, the look on his face was one of depression. "But so many are dead, how could we call this everything we could have done?"

Skye had been walking past them, and idly added. "Fox, we saved two planets in the span of hours, don't forget that. You should blame the Cornerian military for not being aptly prepared for such an attack; the safety of this system isn't solely in your hands." When he finished, he continued walking out. Krystal and Fox watched him go to the doors.

Katt skipped beside them. "He's a bit gloomy but he's right Fox, we kicked ass today. Things could have gone a lot better if those military dummies were keeping their end of the deal up."

Fox looked away from Katt and began to walk to the doors. Krystal looked to Katt and nodded with a smile, that had helped to cheer him up. Falco was beginning to catch up to the group at his own leisurely pace. "Yeah, we win yadda yadda... What's for dinner?"

Both of the girls broke out into a giggle fit. "What? I didn't get any of that macaroni remember? I haven't eaten yet today." He checked his watch; "Shit, it's 5:03 and I haven't even had breakfast. No wonder my aim was clumsy out there."

Katt caught up to Falco as he walked by and put her arm around his shoulder. "Don't you worry Falco, me and Krystal will whip up something nice. Our treat!" Falco licked his beak at the thought of food. "Can't wait."

He shrugged her arm off of his shoulder absently as the pilots got onto the elevator, Slippy ran to catch up just before the doors closed, but was still silent as the elevator containing the 6 pilots began to move up to the Crew Facilities deck of the ship. Krystal walked to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Feel good to get back into the fight again, Slippy?"

The frog continued to look down. "I just don't know anymore Krystal, Amanda is hurt and I can't take my mind off what they did to her! I..." Another tear rolled down his cheek. Krystal squatted down to his height and looked him in the face. "Amanda is all right now, Slippy. She'll pull through. You need to concentrate on the here and now, remember that child needs a father just as much as it needs a mother."

This made Slippy sigh. "You're right Krystal, I'll do my best."

The elevator stopped and Krystal, Falco, Katt and Fox filed out of it. Skye and Slippy stayed in it to go up higher to the crew quarters. Before it shut Katt turned around; "You two not coming for dinner?"

Slippy remained silent, but Skye spoke up. "Just going to get a shower, I'll be down shortly." When he finished that word the doors hissed shut again, and the elevator continued up through the ship towards the crew quarters.

The other four continued walking down the hallway to the Galley. Fox looked a bit cheered up, because his back was straight in pride for the first time since they had left for Aquas. Falco was however, quite the opposite. By looking at his walk you could tell he was exhausted by hunger, and Katt was eyeing him, obviously amused by his famished state.

Once they reached the Galley, Falco took an exasperated sigh and collapsed into one of the red leather chairs at one of the tables closest to the kitchen. Katt and Krystal went straight to the kitchen, Falco and Fox sat at a table together, both laid back, exhausted.

"Story of my life..." Fox said.

"Tell me about it. You know what's the craziest part of it all?"

"What's that?"

"After all of this shit, I still don't regret joining the team in the first place."

"Amen to that."

Krystal called out of the kitchen. "Anything you two want in particular?"

Falco shouted out to her. "Anything quick!" He could hear Katt burst into a giggle fit out in the kitchen.

"How's burgers sound, we have frozen ones we can fry up pretty quickly!"

Falco drooled at the thought of a juicy burger. "Sounds good to me!"

Suddenly the doors to the galley slid open, and the last person Fox expected to see was standing there. Peppy was out of his red uniform and in a simple white long coat with a green shirt underneath, and lighter blue jeans. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything, kids."

Fox didn't say anything, he was giving a slight glare at the hare. He obviously was still annoyed by what Peppy had said before. Falco spoke up, though. "Peppy, we were just about to have some grub. You all right? The Patriot looked like it took an ass kicking."

The old hare sat down at their table. "I'm glad you guys came back as fast as you did, I would have been dead." Peppy looked at Fox. "I actually came to apologize Fox, you were right. The civilians on Aquas certainly had priority, and I was selfish to take the barren Fichina in priority. I barely escaped that stupid mistake with my life, Fox. I owe you one."

Fox looked up at him. "I'm still mad about what you said."

"Well, Fox, I'm not too proud of it either. After this whole mess is over, let me buy you a drink, always cheered your father up."

"Quit mentioning my father."

"Sorry Fox, old habits die hard."

"That was not funny."

It took Falco a moment to catch the pun, he snorted with a halfhearted chuckle. Fox was still glaring at Peppy.

"I wouldn't mind that drink, though."

Peppy laughed with an aged cough and a hack at this. "All right then, its a deal. For ol' times sake, pal. Did Slippy make it through all right?"

"Barely. Amanda is in a coma."

This eliminated the smile off of Peppy's face in a hurry. "I hope Slippy isn't taking it too hard. She's going to recover, right?"

"Krystal seems to think so."

As if on que, Krystal poked her head out of the kitchen for a moment. "Oh, hi Peppy! Would you like a burger as well?"

"Yes, Krystal, I would love one. Thank you." He turned back to Fox. "That's good news, at least not all bad came out of that blunder of mine. I should have just gone with you Fox, until reinforcements were ready. I could have helped on Aquas before taking back Fichina... It's not like we saved the terraforming facility anyway."

Fox seemed to have forgiven Peppy, as he was straight up in his posture again with a smile on his face instead of the murderous glare he sported when the old hare arrived. "We did everything we could, under the circumstances, what we did pull off was a miracle. With their main fleet out in the trash, both sides have enough time to recover, and we should have more time to plan a retaliation strike."

The hare leaned back. "You're absolutely right Fox, in fact I was planning an immediate emergency meeting with the rest of the war council tomorrow to discuss battle plans. To be truthful, I would be glad if you would come along."

Fox considered this a moment. "I guess it would help to be in the know of what's going on with your strategy. I'll come."

As he said this, Skye and Slippy appeared in the doorway. Slippy didn't smile at the sight of Peppy, he just lounged into the room and sat on a nearby table on his own. Peppy stood up and walked up to Skye. "Ah, yes, I remember you from our most recent transmission. I never got to properly introduce myself, General Peppy Hare, Cornerian high command." The hare stuck out his hand, but Skye didn't take it. He looked to Fox, who gave the snow leopard a nod. Skye looked back to Peppy and took his hand, but had a harder handshake than normal. "Skye Grayson. Temporary team mechanic. Pleasure." Without waiting for a reply from Peppy, he glided past the hare and sat in a seat across from Slippy.

Peppy just watched the leopard go sit down, then nodded to himself, assuming this was the cats normal nature, before moving to sit down back at his seat with Fox and Falco. "Quiet type?"

Falco spoke up this time. "He just wasn't too impressed by his first time seeing you."

Peppy turned to face Skye on hearing this. "For what it's worth, I apologize for the first impression I might have put on, Skye." He coughed a moment. "That wasn't my most gloried hour."

The cat simply growled "Quite." and didn't even turn to look at the general. Peppy just turned around with a shrug back to the other pilots. "Anyway before the planning for our attack can begin, there's a mass funeral scheduled on the surface, High Command claims we should have enough time to properly honor the lost from the recent battles, and salvage whatever we can from the destroyed fleets. I got to attend that before we can talk vengeance."

Fox laid back in his seat, now more at ease. "You want me to show up?"

Peppy laid his arms on the table. "Fox, these men need a hero. After what they witnessed at Fichina we're gonna need every morale boost we can get. Venoms fighting harder than ever, even them Aparoids are starting to look like a walk in the park. I'd really appreciate if you could come to the ceremony".

Fox smiled. "Being a hero's my job, sure I'll show up."

Peppy smiled as well. "Make sure to wear something nice." With this, the hare got up out of his seat. "Can't stay for that burger guys, huge mess to clean up from this battle. Good luck to you guys, ceremony is tomorrow at the wreck of the terraforming facility. Funny... Twice we've had to fix that darn gone thing."

When he finished this sentence the door of the Galley hissed shut behind him. Right then, Krystal came out with a stack of burgers on a tray, Katt was following closely behind with several condiments and buns. Krystal called out. "They're ready!"

Falco shot his back up straight watching the tray as if it were floating into the room "Oh man, those look good."

Krystal and Katt sat down and all of them grabbed burgers right away, everyone was hungry, but no one as much as Falco. They were all far too busy eating to talk about what was coming up, and all also had too much to think about on their own anyway. Fox wondered what would be expected of him at the funeral, Krystal was simply enjoying her burger. Slippy barely ate, he was still depressed. Skye had two and left for his room before everyone was finished. Falco had gone through a whole 5 burgers, and lay back in his seat while everyone was still eating with his hand on his stomach. The 5 remaining pilots in the room were all sitting around the same table.

Falco, rubbing his now full stomach said; "Oh god those burgers were good. I love you, Katt."

Everyone looked at him. Katt in particular had her jaw drop. "You what?"

Then Falco's dropped as well. "I said what? The burgers I meant! I loved the burgers!"

Krystal, Fox and even Slippy burst out laughing. Katt was gawking at him, and now blushing. "I heard what you said there Falco, that almost sounded like an "I love you."

Falco began to blush now. "Damn it all! You know what I meant!" He stormed out of his seat, but slowly, as his stomach was full to the point where he almost needed to waddle."

The others were almost to tears laughing, but Katt was watching Falco walk out the door, and said quietly to herself. "Remind me, Falco."

**10 Minutes later**

**Great Fox II Medical Bay**

Slippy, now with hunger and battle off of his mind, had gone down to the med bay to visit Amanda. He was standing beside her lifeless form holding her left hand between both of his. The only sound in the room was the heart monitor playing its steady, slow beat.

"Amanda, I killed them today. I can never get enough revenge on them for what they did, but I started repaying the long debt today. I hope you wake up soon... There's so much to think about, now that Atlantis was wiped out I... I'm not sure where we're gonna live."

Little did Slippy notice, Skye was standing behind him in the corner of the room, watching Slippy pray to her silently.

"One thing's for sure though, once you wake up and this war is over, I'm gonna stop putting myself in the line of fire. Krystal was right, our baby needs a father just as much as it needs a mother. I'm not gonna risk that anymore."

Skye lowered his head, as obscure as it was, there was deep wisdom in the distressed frogs words. Skye was beginning to wonder himself, whether he would ever feel the same love Slippy did, so he would have an excuse to stop fighting, and finally rest. Skye felt a sneeze come on but resisted it, he still sniffled though. This caused Slippy to turn around with a start. "Skye?! What the heck are you doing here!"

He continued to look to the ground. "I envy what you have, Slippy. I have not had so much as a friend in years, no one to mourn and no one to mourn me in return. You have my best of wishes for your wife's safe recovery."

With this, he began to walk out of the room, but the frog chased him out the door into the hall. "Wait up! What do you mean no friends?"

Skye did not look back to Slippy. "I continue to walk the path of the killer, this team is just another group of accomplices to me, who will eventually discard me once this war is done, for having no other value but war. I used to know what friendship felt like, Slippy. I do not seek it anymore, for fear it will be taken away. You could call me a coward, if you must."

Slippy caught up to him and looked up to the tall leopard. "What do you mean? You have friends here, and they care about you. Especially Katt, you've known her for years apparently. Is she just a boss to you?"

Skye finally saw liberty to at his short follower. "I have grown somewhat attached to her, yes. I imagine I would be quite sore if she were to be injured. Why?"

"Well then what are you talking about having no friends? Just watch, Skye, soon everyone on this ship will be that close to you. Hell even ROB makes a good friend after a while. We all care about you, Skye, why do you not want to care back?"

Skye paused, and looked away from the frog before they reached the elevator. "Because the love of my life, was not so lucky as yours. The only thing I fear anymore is feeling that same pain again."

Slippy thought understood what he meant right away. "You were married once?"

Skye finally saw fit to explain his shrouded riddles. "No, I have never been married. I was very close to my younger sister, Janice. Ever since our parents died, we had only each other to look after each other in the slummier parts of Macbeth. I went to university for aerospace engineering, taxing on my natural piloting skill I inherited from my mother. I had taught Janice everything my mother had taught me, but she got involved with pirates against my better judgment. I was in the military by the time I heard from her again, and it was then I heard she had been found and apprehended for raiding a weapons shipment convoy. She was scheduled for execution."

Slippy looked down in shame as they entered the elevator, he took the liberty of hitting the docking bay button; they were going to go down and check on each of the Arwings. He had no idea Skye had such a rough past. "What happened then?"

He leaned his head against the wall of the elevator as it began to descend. "I was prepared to sacrifice my military career to protect her. I broke her out of prison the day she was scheduled for execution, and we escaped together. On the way out, however, she was shot by a sniper that had been part of the squadrons pursuing us. I had got her off world in a stolen drop ship; but she had died of her wounds before I could get us to Katina to a hospital." He paused for a moment, Slippy noticed a tear dripping down his cheek. "I trained myself with a sniper rifle, and went back to Corneria a week later after burying Janice, I killed every single member of the squad that had pursued us, one by one. I took up assassination as a career afterwards. 2 years later, the incompetent idiots at the aerospace engineering lab I was in charge of before I left finally sorted out the plans that I had for the original Arwing, and built it. I was given no credit for the blueprints, and I cared very little. I would make better, and show them just how pathetic they really were."

The story had even almost made Slippy cry. "That's so sad..... It makes me feel much better though, how fortunate I am to have Amanda still in once piece."

Skye looked at the frog, and bent on one knee so their eyes would match height, and looked right in his. "Slippy Toad, in memory of lost love, I vow to serve behind you until this war is over, to avenge them trying to take from you what was once taken from me."

Slippy was stunned, he didn't know what to say, but he simply nodded. "Ok."

The elevator door finally slipped open to reveal the 6 Arwings in the bay. Skye walked ahead of the toad. "Guess we had better get to work."

**Meanwhile....**

**Falco's Room**

Falco was lying on his bed, with his vest unbuttoned revealing a bulging stomach. He was in pain, too much hamburger. He preferred the pain in his stomach he was feeling over the ridiculous hunger any day, but it still sucked. As he lay there in pain he groaned when he thought of what slipped out his mouth in the galley. He felt like a total moron, he did like her, and they had known each other almost as long as he knew Fox, but now he gave her the wrong idea, and he looked like a total fool!

Just as this thought went through his head his door snapped open. Katt was dressed in her usual red sleeveless hoodie and black bellbottoms, Falco just bent his head up and looked in her direction. He didn't even bother saying "What do you want" this time.

She was just leaning on the frame of the door looking at the bird. "Falco? You ok?"

He laid his head back down and closed his eyes. "Too many burgers." he grunted.

She giggled and walked into the room with her usual prance. _"here we go..."_ he thought.

She sat on the side of his bed and poked his stomach, causing a groan of pain to erupt from Falco. "Urgh, don't do that."

"So..." she started. "About what you said in the galley..."

He cut her off. "It was bullshit, I was talking about the burgers."

"Krystal says otherwise."

He turned on his side away from Katt as his face turned red instantly, he had forgot all about Krystal's ability to read minds. "Why do you want me to give in so bad, anyway? I'm just a jerk with a fetish for killing people, remember?"

She laid beside him on the bed, and looked at the roof. "Originally, when we were still in the Hot Rodders, that's what I thought too. You were good at what you did, smuggling, murder, all of it. I had already liked you a bit then, when we worked so much together, but never wanted to get together with you, because of what you did and what it represented."

He stayed silent, and listened.

"But when you met Fox, and ran off to the military to learn how to fly, and you joined Star Fox and became a hero... Everything I hated in you washed away, it was like a dream come true. When I heard you joined Star Fox, the famous gang of heroes that traversed Lylat looking to save lives and protect it from whatever threats emerged, Falco, I fell in love with what you became. What you still are now. You're still that smug killer you were back then, but now you're a hero that fights for the good of everyone."

"It's good money."

She bared her teeth and turned him over so he was facing the roof again, he grunted again as his stomach hurt him. "Damn it, Falco! Don't give me that line! You and I both know that's bull shit."

He finally looked her in the eye. "So what if it is?"

"Falco, once I found out what you became, I quit the gang and learned to become a pilot just so I could finally show you how much I cared. You pushed me off every time though as if I was some part of your past you wanted to forget, and now here I am, in Star Fox fighting right beside you."

She fell on her back again and looked to the ceiling, it was Falco's turn to talk, if he would at all.

He shut his eyes, he couldn't believe he was about to say this. "Katt, fine. I admit it."

She looked at him, hope in her eyes.

"When we worked together in the Hot Rodders, I had always liked you. When I met Fox, and joined his team, I figured you would stay at that life. Truth was, I avoided you because dealing with you threatened to expose what I used to be. I used to be exactly what this team fought, and I was always afraid Fox would kick me out if he knew what I was. Sure he knows I was a hooligan, but a murderer and a gangster...? I guess I was just a coward. I tried to force memories of you out of my god damn head, and look where it got me. First I tried drinking it down, then I tried covering it up. Truth was, I never really forgot you."

Her eyes began to sparkle, it was a dream come true for her. "I love you, Falco."

He gulped, he got this far, might as well go the rest of the way. "I.. I love you too, Katt."

She rolled over on top of him right away, and kissed the side of his beak, causing him to blush as he grunted from her weight on his full stomach. He decided to ignore the pain and suck it in, he was going to need all the stamina he was going to get for what he was about to do.

**((Authors Notes: Removed the lemon, sorry for people that wanted it but good lord, too many people in my school reading it and that's about as awkward as it gets…))**

**Great Fox Docking Bay**

Slippy and Skye didn't have much work to do, the Arwings took very minimal damage during the most recent battle. The only things they really had to do was recharge fuel cells and replenish smart bomb supplies. Once they finished, they smiled at each other. Mechanics was really the only thing that took their minds off of the worries of the world; it was like solving puzzles, except these ones had been particularly easy.

Slippy looked over to Skye. "You weren't kidding when you said you designed the Arwing, you're even better with these things than I am."

Skye smiled at this, it was good to be recognized for something. "I am not surprised that the design has changed little since my time, the G-Diffuser for example has predictably remained unchanged, as it was solely my design. I wanted to be a professor at the University of Macbeth for aerospace engineering once... but I already had little enough patience with incompetence, I imagine it would not be any better teaching."

"Did you ever meet my dad? Beltino Toad?"

"As a matter of fact, I did. I was extremely annoyed that I was not granted permission to have him on my team for the development of the Arwing, instead he was sent off to work on the terraformer on Fichina, and I was stuck with a merry gang of idiots."

They both had a chuckle as they walked back to the elevator. The leopard hit the switch inside this time, and they ascended for the crew quarters deck. "I'm glad I got the opportunity to share my past. I don't believe I have yet with anyone. It feels good to get that off my back."

Slippy smiled at him. "That's what friends are for, buddy."

They each headed to their own rooms. Falco, Katt, Fox and Krystal were all already asleep. It was going to be a long day tomorrow...

**The Next Day**

**July 31st, 8 AM Lylat Standard Time**

Beeping again. Fox was ready for the intrusive noise this time. Out of instinct, his left paw clumsily pulled a blaster out from under his pillow and shot the nearest wall. It continued to buzz. _'Fuck. Didn't work.'_

Krystal had been awoken at the sound of blaster fire with her heart racing, there was a black scorch mark on the wall beside them. She looked around, but all she saw was Fox holding a blaster, which dropped to the floor. "Fox, what the fuck?!"

The blaster flare made him jolt a bit as well, he didn't expect it to be so loud. He sat up and glared at Krystal. "BEEPING."

She gasped for air from the heart attack she almost had and burst out laughing. Fox was still a bit confused, why was the angel laughing at him? He tried to kill that infernal beeping. Isn't that what heroes were supposed to do? Kill the bad guy and save the princess?

"What a minute." Fox said. "Not dreaming anymore."

"No, you dork! You shot the wall."

Fox turned and noticed the blackened pit in the wall where he had fired. "Oh, whoops."

Krystal took the liberty of asking ROB why he was waking them up, as Fox still appeared to be dazed from deep sleep. "ROB, what is the alarm about?"

The robotic voice filled the room. "THE MASS FUNERAL IS SCHEDULED FOR TWO HOURS ON THE SURFACE OF FICHINA. I SET A COURSE THERE AND WE WILL ARRIVE IN APPROXIMATELY ONE HOUR 2 MINUTES AND 34 SECONDS. I ADVISE THE CREW BE PREPARED."

She turned to Fox. "You heard him, Fox, we need to get ready to go."

He was rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "Don' wanna."

She hugged him, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Fox, you said we were going to go to the funeral right? We have to get up and go."

His eyes were finally open all the way. "Okay okay fine. You take a shower first I'll go wake up everyone else."

She gave him a smug look. "I'm sure the beeping woke them up too."

"I shot a hole in the wall, imagine how Falco reacted."

**Falco's Room**

Katt was still half asleep on the bed, but Falco was up and frantically running around the room getting clothes on. She wasn't sure what he said, but involved a lot of cursing and death threats. She giggled at the thought, but the beeping was starting to get annoying. She finally sat up, watching the bird fumble about. "Calm down dummy, it's just ROB."

He had tripped over himself again, and was face down on the floor. "ROB, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?!?!"

"WE ARE APPROACHING FICHINA FOR THE CORNERIAN FLEET MASS FUNERAL. SUGGEST IMMEDIATE PREPARATION."

He stopped struggling and calmed down. "Fine, fine. I'll get ready."

After about ten minutes, Everyone was showered and down in the Galley. Most of them were completely awake, and all were in some sort of dress uniform.

The team was dressed barely better than casual for the ceremony. Fox, Krystal, Slippy and Falco were all wearing their standard gray Star Fox jackets with normal T shirts under them, Fox had left his standard red scarf behind, but was wearing his fathers spare set of sunglasses which he always kept as one of his fathers remaining mementos. Katt was wearing a long sleeved black shirt under a thick black winter coat with the blackest pair of jeans she could find, not being used to big social gatherings. Skye had a black T-Shirt with jeans, caring little what the people there thought about what he wore. It shouldn't matter, considering the pretenses of the funeral; so he thought, anyway. For some reason, he had his rifle with him.

They all took seats in the Galley, and waited for the Great Fox to reach Fichina over a bowl of cereal each. Fox was looking at Skye with wonder. "Skye, why the rifle?"

"This would be a very obviously lucrative time for the enemy to ambush the ceremony. I do not plan on attending the ceremony, I will be scouting around making sure there are no disruptions."

"Krystal looked up form her cereal. "Let's hope that intuition is wrong."

"It is simply a safety precaution, I doubt even the Venomians have the nerve to crash a funeral."

Slippy looked at him as well. "Aren't you going to be cold down there in only a T-shirt? The planet temperature is an average of like... -25 degrees Celsius."

"I'm a snow leopard, remember?"

The rest of them chuckled, it was rare for the genius Slippy to overlook such an obvious fact. He went back to his cereal without a word.

**An Hour later**

**Surface of Fichina**

**Cornerian 2nd Battle Group Memorial**

The day had decided to lighten up on the storms that were standard to Fichina, which helped alleviate the heavy hearts that were gathered. More than 700 animals had shown up; High Command officials, senators, survivors of the battle, and families of the fallen.

Not far away from the snowy waste this gathering was taking place was the wreck that was once the terraforming facility; the one ray of hope that could have turned Fichina into a lush, green world. All of the people there were standing in a semicircle around a statue that must have been 50 feet tall featuring a saluting dog wearing your average military uniform, and a podium with a microphone set up in front of it. A band was behind the monument, and it played a military lament that had been passed down through millennia, since the time of humans, before playing the Cornerian anthem.

Peppy was standing on the podium, he was in a more formal version of his generals uniform; this one was white, with quite a bit of gold on it, whether it was from medals, or the illustrious sash that crossed it abreast. The proud uniform did him no good though, as his expression was of one who had lived long enough only to be rewarded by such a sight. He picked up the microphone once the anthem had ended. There was not even a single breeze on the normally harsh planet to interrupt his speech; his old and rasp voice was given an extra effect of fatigue with the weight of what he was about to say to the families of the lost.

"Fellow Cornerians, in my few years as General it has often been my sad duty to see the men under my order fall in battle. As underlings of mine, I have made mistakes and it wracks me with guilt to know that it was not I who paid the ultimate price; but those brave men and women that I had ordered onto the front lines. Men and women I were responsible for, and I went into battle with."

There were murmurs in the crowd, Fox looked to the snow covered ground with depression. Peppy was taking the blame for what had happened, which was totally unfair. Fox knew this better than anyone.

"Those brave soldiers and officers that have put their lives on the line for this system, and lost them in the crossfire, now only serve to see their souls be remembered in the hearts of those they once defended; and we all are taxed with remembering their sacrifice as long as this statue may stand; we owe it to them, not only as patrons to their sacrifice, but as a legacy to what they stood for. They have fought to their last breath and now pass on the torch to those left, so that we may continue the crusade to peace in the Lylat System."

His expression grew more determined as he spoke. "The black tendrils of Venoms armies has threatened Corneria once too many times; and those lost today and forever after add on top of a debt that Venom has owed us since its first invasion; one that those that precede these lost souls must rally and get back from them in full if we are ever to keep what these men and women have lost their lives for. Venom seeks to take from us what these people died for."

He raised a hand in oath. "In remembrance and honour to those that have lost their lives keeping intact the Lylat system from it's invaders and relentless opposition, I, Supreme General Peppy Hare, swear to uphold the torch that they have passed unto me with a vigilance and ferocity that will make the invaders of Lylat shake in their boots, until a time that I join the ones who have laid down their lives in service to Corneria and it's people. I swear this vow with you all as my audience, the brave souls lost in orbit of this snowy wasteland, will be avenged with every last drop of battle that remains in my own blood, and the blood of every single soldier that carries the legacy! Long live Corneria! LONG LIVE PEACE! WE WILL HAVE VICTORY!"

With this he shot his fist up into the air as though he were striking at the very soul of the planet, and despite the sorrow that once hung on the occupants of that frozen desolate expanse, it was shattered by cheers of anger and vengeance; cheers that Fox would be surprised if Dash could not hear on his throne in Androsia; cheers that would spell his death. Cheers that would spell peace for decades to come.

**Two Hours Later**

**The Patriot War Room**

**12:21 PM Lylat Standard Time**

After the funeral procession, the team had been quick to assemble on the Patriot by Peppy's recommendation; a lot of big shots had shown up in the well-lit blue circular room. The room was fit for those at the seat of power; a large table took up most of the room, with hits center hollow. A device sat in the middle of the table on the ground; a holoprojector was displaying a map of the Lylat System, and Macbeth was highlighted. Fox, Falco, Krystal, Katt, Skye and Slippy walked into the room and took the last 6 seats which were directly across the table from Peppy, who was in a larger chair that was slightly elevated off the ground. Members of the Cornerian High Command, Senators, all of them were there. They were in the middle of a discussion when the team walked in and took their seats; something about the Venom Defense Zone.

Peppy had been the first to welcome the team in. "Everyone, everyone please welcome our guests of honor, the Star Fox team."

With gasps and awe, more or less every head in the room (including the guards standing around the room) turned their eyes to the team. They were all waving and smiling as they sat, except for Skye and Katt who were unused to public appearances, who just took their seats nervously.

Peppy folded his hands on the table and looked at the team. "We were just discussing our plan of attack. I already told you earlier, that Macbeth is our primary target. It's the only port that any sizeable fleet can stage an attack on any part of this side of the system from; and if we grab it and hold it well, they will be strategically trapped with only Titania, Venom and Sector Z to call their own."

Fox decided to do the talking. "So we're going to Macbeth. What's our part in it?"

Peppy continued. The other people in the room were so awed by the presence of their heroes they simply listened to the discussion as Peppy explained the situation to Star Fox. "We wouldn't normally have trouble throwing enough ships onto Macbeth to overwhelm them, but they have the major advantage of fighter support on the ground, and with the base in the capital city under their control they have network access to an array of surface-to-space turret sites that are capable of dealing damage to capital ships; an advantage that could cost us the battle."

As he said this, the holographic image at the center of the room zoomed in on Macbeth all the way into the capital city, showing the same military base that Falco had borrowed a fighter from on the preemptive strike at the beginning of the war. It zoomed out again, and it highlighted a series of lines that led to bright dots all over the surface of the planet, and the image then zoomed in on one of the dots to reveal a huge 100 foot tall cannon that looked like it could tear the Great Fox in half.

"So you want us to deal with the base first, so they don't have that advantage, and then the fleet will drop the heavy end of the hammer on the Venomians?"

"That's exactly right, Fox. We need to be careful however, to use stealth on the surface. We can't exactly just blow up the base guns'a'blazing with plenty 'o warning, or they'll have enough time to prepare for the inevitable attack to ruin the entire operation."

Falco spoke up. "Why us then? We're too famous to exactly waltz through the city undetected."

"That may be the case, but your new members may not have such a disadvantage. Using them, we can have you on the surface destroying that base, and you will be the first ones ready for the tango in space once its gone."

Skye, who had his arms crossed and was listening intently, finally spoke. "You're going to rely the entire operation on me and Katt, who you've never seen in action?"

Peppy sighed. "If I recall correctly you and Katt were stationed on the base during the attack, and you two were amongst the only survivors that made it out alive, with an impressive kill count to boot. I'm certain that you two are the ones for the job."

Katt leaned forward. "You want us two to destroy an entire base without alerting them?"

One of the commanders in the room finally saw fit to speak. He was a rather aged raccoon, wearing the classic red high officers uniform. His voice was one of who had been fighting wars for far too long. "There is several ammunition depots throughout the base, as you and Mr. Greyson should know about, that wouldn't react kindly to well placed explosives. By the time the base is destroyed by the explosions stealth will no longer matter; it is only imperative to remain undetected during the first part of the operation. As soon as the base is confirmed destroyed, we need you to call us in so we can jump in and secure the system."

Skye still had his arms crossed. "What's the catch?"

Peppy answered this one. "There may be prisoners inside the base."

Katt and Skye both looked down the table. Skye sighed "Shit..." under his breath.

Peppy sat up again. "As soon as you set the charges, any prisoners can be let out without any worry of using covert means as long as the bases communications is down. There is a lot of leeway on this mission. Do you accept?"

Fox looked at Skye, with a look suggesting that it was his and Katt's choice alone. Katt was looking at Skye as well. "Very well, I will do it."

**2 Hours Later**

**The Great Fox Galley**

**On the way to Macbeth**

Fox, Falco and Slippy were sitting in the Galley enjoying sandwiches they made out of whatever was hanging around in the Great Fox's fridge, waiting for Skye and Katt to be ready. Fox wasn't sure what Krystal was up to; she mentioned something about grabbing something. He wasn't really paying attention at the time.

Skye, Katt and Krystal all came into the galley together. Krystal was in a thick black sweater with darker blue jeans, with her staff shortened up and attached to her belt. Katt was in a simple white tank top with black jeans, with her blaster in a hip-holster. Skye didn't even appear to change, wearing a black T-shirt and matching jeans. They were all holding duffle bags, Skye was holding an extra suitcase on top of that however, which Fox assumed contained his rifle.

Fox had been staring at Krystal. "Krystal? What are you doing?"

"She smiled setting down the duffle bag. "Going with them, of course. They're going to need help."

He stood up and walked over to her. "No way, you're too easy to spot Krystal, how many blue furred Cerinians with a golden staff are there in Lylat? I think we should leave this to them."

"Fox, I can cover my presence with my telepathy. They won't even know I'm there. I can do memory wipes too, you know."

He held her by the waist, and looked her in the eye. He knew very well she could pull this off, but he was still worried. "Ok, be careful down there."

"Thanks Fox." and she kissed him.

Katt set down her own bag and sat down beside Falco, giving him a smooch on the cheek. Everyone in the room looked at them with shock except for Krystal who obviously knew they were together. Falco didn't even resist it. Fox's jaw hit the floor, and he said "Whoa, did I just see what I thought I saw?"

Falco shooed the gesture off with a wave of his wing. "Yeah yeah, laugh all you want. I gave in, alright?"

Fox stumbled to catch his words. "No, that's not what I meant at all! I mean err, congratulations!"

Everyone in the room rolled their eyes, and Skye broke the silence. "We should be getting to Macbeth soon. We're going to need to study their radar map so we can fly in under it and get close to the city before we need to walk in."

Katt looked at Fox. "He's right, and as soon as we get close enough we're going to have to get a hotel near the base so we can scout it out properly, we don't know what might have changed since the Venomians moved in."

Krystal was holding onto Fox again. "We're going to be out a couple of days, okay Fox?"

He kissed her. "Alright, good luck. Call us as soon as it goes off, and we'll get this show on the road."

She hugged him once more as Skye and Katt were bringing their bags out the door. "Will do."

**((Authors Notes: Woo, that was a doozy of a chapter. 19 pages with 8,485 words! Should set up chapter 5 well enough, I have an interesting twist to throw into the mix that I bet all of you will enjoy. I hope i'm not rushing the story too much, I suppose everything that happened here could have been detailed and stretched into two chapters, but it was kinda slow you know? Would have been a boring 2 chapters. Was the speech too cheezy? Would you have rather seen the Lemon I wrote? Reviews and suggestions everyone, I really appreciate it!))**


	6. Chapter 5: Jailbreak

**Chapter 5**

**Jailbreak**

**July 31st**

**3:10 Lylat Standard Time**

**Distant Orbit of Macbeth**

The familiar robotic voice of ROB filled the docking bay as Skye was finishing installing a new little toy on Katt's, Krystal's and his own Arwing; simple radar jamming devices that would allow the three to approach Macbeth completely undetected. "ENTERING DISTANT MACBETH ORBIT; OUT OF ENEMY SENSOR RANGE, READY FOR LAUNCH AT ANY TIME."

Katt peeked out of the cockpit of her Cats Claw just as Skye stepped out from under the nose of the craft. "All done?"

He looked up to her and wiped a bit of sweat off his brow. "Yeah, with these on we should be able to land as close as a kilometer away from the city border without being detected. We just need to make sure we aren't seen, these don't make us invisible."

"Ok! Don't get spotted, not so hard, is it Krystal?"

The blue vixen poked her head up out of the Cloud Runner. "Sounds simple enough. Any catches?"

Skye grabbed onto the wing of his Assassin to get leverage and leaped up into the pilots seat, and began to start the ship. "No, actually. This should work fine, it's not that complicated of technology really, radar jammers have been in use for hundreds of years."

Katt began to close her cockpit canopy. "Shows how far behind I am on technology, I could barely replace the fuel cells on these things."

The three ships lit up as their bottom side repulsor lifts became active and they began to float above the deck of the ship. The docking bay doors began their slow crawl to open as the three Arwings drifted into position along the landing strip that lead to the doors. The light blue flares that signified the engine flare began to light up, but not powerful enough yet to send them shooting out of the bay.

"Here's to a smooth mission." Skye said over the comm.

Katt broke in. "Yeah, I hear that!"

Krystal was next. "Don't jinx it!"

As soon as the docking bays finally lugged to a stop, the three fighters punched their thrusters and the blue flares in the ships rears lit up far more brightly, and the three ships fired out of the docking bay like bullets out of a high powered rifle. As soon as they were clear and rushing towards the planet, the Great Fox began to turn around, and jumped into warp to get back to Fichina, where it would wait for word from the three pilots.

Skye took the lead on the descent into the dark green planets atmosphere; as they plunged through the stratosphere of Macbeth the ships lit up like torches with friction heat, and the ships shields flickered defending the pilots from the harsh heat of re-entry.

Before long the Arwings broke through the planets cloud layer, and pulled out of their nose dive flying low towards Macbeth City. The three pilots expertly maneuvered just above the tree line of the planets extensive forestry, and after 5 minutes they had reached the 1 kilometer mark before the city limits.

Skye had spotted a clearing in the forest and thrown his Arwing's brakes in while he began the landing checklist. His rear thrust engine cut out first, and his repulsor engines kicked in as the Arwing slowly began its descent towards the forest floor. The other two ships followed suit.

Katt was the first one out of her Arwing, and she wasted no time jumping out of the cockpit to the moist forest floor. It was more like a jungle than a forest, trees were sparse enough to see for 300 meters, but thick enough that they could not see the city from their location. The vast majority of the forest was made up of large-leafed tropical trees and vines. The large leaves provided good shade over the clearing, so their Arwings would probably not be spotted by an overhead patrol.

As Katt was pulling her bag out of the Arwings cargo bay in the nose of the ship, Skye and Krystal were still sliding out of their ships. Krystal took a deep breath of the fresh jungle air. "This forest is teeming with life, a refreshing change from the Great Fox all of the time."

Katt already had her bag slung over her shoulder. "Mmm, the air almost smells sweet."

Skye had started walking through the tree barrier into the forest towards the city. "This isn't a picnic, you two. We need to get to the city before nightfall and get a hotel room that has a view over the base, we have 2 days to get this done before the rest of the team comes looking for us regardless of our mission status."

Katt jogged to catch up to him, and Krystal wasn't far behind. "Don't be so gloomy, don't you enjoy the forest air for a change?"

He kept his gaze in the direction he was walking. "Too strong, can't smell nearby hostiles. Makes me jumpy."

Krystal caught up to them and made pace beside them, the two girls on either side of Skye. "I can catch anything your nose can't with my telepathy, there's nothing to fuss about."

"Very well."

**15 Minutes Later**

**3:31 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**5:45 PM Macbeth Time**

After the 15 minute walk through the quiet jungle they finally caught sight on Macbeth City. Krystal had taken a blue hoodie out of her bag a couple minutes earlier and put it on, putting the hood up to take attention off her face. She began to keep a close eye out for people looking at her, and she would quickly edit what they saw into a perfectly normal black furred Fox, using her telepathy to invade their mind.

There was thick crowds of animals roaming the streets, Skye had picked up conversations several times about a curfew that had been put in place. The rumors were confirmed when he overheard a green-clad Venomian soldier yelling that the curfew was in place starting at 7:00 PM. That left them more than an hour to find a hotel, but it still left him uneasy. It would make it more difficult to get to the military base at night unnoticed.

Katt lead the two on towards the base. "Hey, it just occurred to me what would be the perfect spot for the night."

Krystal was starting to look tired. "Please, take us there. This constant exertion of my telepathy is going to wear me out sooner or later."

It was only 3 or four blocks away from where she said this, a tall inconspicuous building that didn't seem to be in the best condition, many places in it's metal architecture were rusted, and there were even some holes, some larger than others. Katt turned to look back at her two followers and walked backwards towards the building. "It looks better on the inside, plus I know the owner; she sympathizes with Corneria so she should offer us a room."

Skye was looking over his shoulder to check for any soldiers that might have been watching them. "I could use a friendly face right about now."

Katt turned around again and pushed open the rough double glass doors into the building. The lobby did indeed look better on the inside; the room reminded them more of a tavern; it was dimly lit, with dark wood floors and a bar, there were only a couple patrons left. A cute looking beige furred mouse was behind the bar, filling a cup with some acoholic beverage or another while the three pilots took seats next to each other at the bar. As soon as the mouse passed the drink to the old raccoon that was closest to her, she turned and looked at her new 3 customers; and recognized Katt right away.

Her accent was one of a girl that was brought up on a ranch, very southern. "Katt, darlin'! I haven't seen you since god knows when. What brings you to this shitty corner of the system on a night like this?"

Katt smirked, and spoke in a hushed tone so other patrons would be strained to overhear. "Me and my two friends here decided to drop in and do something about this outrageous curfew, a plan that involves a bit of fire and some violence. We were just coming to see if we could get a room for the night, Jen, preferably top floor so we can get a nice view of the base."

Jen smiled and leaned her elbows on the bar, leaning her head in her palms. "Of course, sugar. I got just the room in mind; you guys need anything to drink? On the house!"

Katt and Krystal both shook their heads. Skye, surprisingly spoke up. "I actually wouldn't mind a shot of vodka, please."

Katt shot Skye an inquisitive look. "Since when did you drink?"

He looked down at the bar. "Since I got involved with the front lines in a war."

All four had a chuckle with this, and Jane agreed to let him take the drink up with them to their room. After a long stair climb up to the 10th floor of the building, Katt led the way to the far end of the hall and slid a keycard Jen had given her into a small slot that was beside the door knob. The slot shined with a green light for a second, and the familiar mechanics of a door lock were heard before Katt pulled the door open. All three pilots dropped their bags inside the door and hit the nearest chair.

It was homely, to say the least. It was a large rectangular room deeper than it was wide, with brown drywall and a deep blue carpet. A medium size holoprojector was mounted on the wall to the right as they walked in, along with a 3 seater brown couch facing it along with a thickly-padded recliner beside it, with a coffee table in between the couch and the projector. A eat-in kitchenette was at the far side of the place, and a large window. All three noticed right away that the military base dominated the view of the window. Three wooden doors along the left side of the room signified 2 bedrooms and a bathroom between them.

"This isn't bad at all, the look of the building outside was certainly misleading." Krystal said as she laid back on the far side of the couch.

Katt joined her on the couch. "Yeah, the poor girl doesn't get much for customers. I'll probably pay her on the way out anyway, she's such a good friend to me." She looked at Skye. "What are we gonna do for bedrooms? There's only two rooms."

Skye sat back in the recliner. "I'll take the couch, I suppose."

Katt giggled at him. "I'm glad you understand."

After Skye finished his shot, he paced over to the window and looked over the base. It was tightly guarded; high fences with barbed-wire tops surrounded it, he assumed they were electrified. Towers were at each corner of the fencing, and Skye could see from where he was that they had 2 snipers a piece with spotlights. The base itself was a large, multi-section building; it was easy enough to assume the largest building was the hangar, and barracks would not be far from that. He had been in the base before, and he knew this to be true; he also took the time to recall where the security office was, the prison, the ammunition caches and the uplink centre for the planets turret defenses was. He frowned, he could extremely easily punch through the roof of the building over the security office and deactivate all of the surveillance systems before raiding the base. All it would take to get through the electrified fence was a minute with a laser cutter, and the spotlights shouldn't be difficult.

But to make sure he remembered where everything was, he was going to have to infiltrate the base once before the raid. He had brought a laptop with him, and could very quickly switch the picture on a guards stolen ID card to his own, allowing him access to the base. All he had to do, was to find a guard that was a similar size to him, and kindly "ask" him to borrow his equipment and identification.

He checked his watch; 7:24. Shouldn't be difficult to catch a guard alone during curfew.

"Ladies, I am going to go and acquire myself a suitable disguise for my preliminary infiltration tomorrow, I will be back in no more than 20 minutes."

Krystal looked exhausted, and she slouched into the deep padding of the couch. "I need to rest, using my telepathy so much is extremely tiring."

Katt flipped on the projector, and through the channels to the local news. "Guess I'll see what the deal is lately around here, it might be good to know what's going on in the city."

Without another word, Skye opened his duffle bag that was in the middle of the room on the floor, and pulled out a silenced pistol he had brought. It wasn't much special, just a small 10 mm black handgun with a suppressor on its muzzle. A hoister for the weapon was with it, he strapped it to his left leg and put the pistol in it before walking out the door.

Jen had let him out the back door of the building, allowing Skye to make his way in the dark slums of Macbeth city silently. Snow leopards were natural stealth artists, and the gray of his fur and the black of his clothes allowed him to remain nicely undetected amongst the shadows of buildings around him.

It wasn't long before he met his mark, a tall black dog soldier was slacking off, leaning on the wall in the corner of an alley with a lit cigarette hanging out of his muzzle. Skye was deeper down the alley, and approached the unsuspecting victim slowly in a crouch.

By an insurmountable display of luck, the dog turned to look out of the alley onto the street, checking for breakers of the curfew the Venom Military had in place in the city. Skye took this chance and advanced quickly up to the dog, completely silent. As soon as he was close enough, he wrapped his left arm around the dogs throat to quiet him, and brought his pistol to the dogs temple with his right arm. The dogs gun fell to the ground, and he didn't put up a struggle due to the pistol that was so close to ending his miserable life.

Skye dragged his prey quickly into the darker end of the alley. "Hi there. I am going to ask you a couple of questions, if you do not answer them satisfactorily, I will do this."

Upon saying this, he squeezed a particular pressure point in the dogs throat, and heard a muffled whimper as the dog struggled for freedom, only to have the muzzle of the pistol dug into his right temple.

"If you fail to answer my questions satisfactorily three times, I will put a bullet into your head, and you will die alone in this slummy alley."

The dog slowly nodded.

"Speak quietly, is the outer fence of the military base electrified?"

The dog complied, whispering quietly as Skye let off a little pressure from his throat. "Yes, more than 1000 volts, capable of a one touch kill... Just don't hurt me...!"

"Good doggy. Is there a DNA or fingerprint check involved with gaining access to the base?"

"No, they just ask to see your card."

"Excellent. You may walk out of this alive yet. Has any rooms within the facility had their purpose changed since the original occupation?"

"N-No, its just exactly the same."

Skye had sensed hesitation in the dogs voice, and decided to drop one of the animals chances, squeezing the pressure point. The dog kicked and whimpered, Skye could feel a tear on his arm from the frightened troop. "Try that again, I didn't like the way you said that."

"Ok, I'm sorry!! Please don't kill me! The barracks were moved closer to the security checkpoint near the entrance so we could more quickly respond to riots, and all of the spare ammunition was stored in the old barracks! I swear I'm telling the truth!"

"One more thing, what's your pants size?"

The dog hesitated. "Ugh, erm... 38 by 35 inches I think..! Yeah!"

Skye couldn't believe his luck, the dog was thicker than him by only an inch, and was the same leg length. He had nabbed a cooperative interrogation victim AND his uniform would fit him! "Thanks."

Today wasn't the day for mercy, though. While he did feel pity for the pup, and he was so helpful, he couldn't risk him waking up before the raid and running to tell his superiors what had happened here. Skye pulled the trigger on the pistol, and a blood splatter soaked the left wall of the alley. Skye dragged the body back more and stashed it in a dumpster after stripping the body of his uniform and identification, he also grabbed the soldiers rifle for an extra decorative touch to his disguise; he doubted any garbage disposal companies would be loyal to the Venom military there, and wouldn't report a soldiers body.

Not 5 minutes later Skye had returned to the hotel with a funny look from Jen as he walked straight to the stairwell carrying a military uniform. He brought it right upstairs and folded it neatly at the foot of the couch in their room beside Katt. She smiled up at him. "Had good luck then, I assume?"

He walked over to his laptop that was set up on the kitchenette table with the dogs ID card. "It was incredible, answered all of my questions, and even had a uniform that would fit me. Had to kill the poor bastard anyway, though."

She giggled. "You always were a bad ass.. Krystal already went to bed, she was really really exhausted. I didn't have as much luck as you with the news, maybe I'll go talk to Jen about anything I should know."

Skye was logging into his laptop, and he slipped the ID card into the proper port on the side of it, a program automatically loaded onto it that he would use to edit the photo and other information. "Ask her if soldiers ever check this building for spies, will you?"

"Will do." she said, heading out of the door as Skye got to work on the card.

**The Next Day**

**August 1st**

**7:00 AM Macbeth Time**

The alarm in Skye's watch woke him up right on time the next morning with a persistent beep that made the snow leopard fumble with it just to get it to stop. The effort had woken him enough to let him get off of the hotel rooms couch without dozing off again; it was surprisingly comfortable. He had been up late the night before cleaning the stolen uniform and perfecting the edited ID card, and lost track of time when he finally finished. He guessed that he only got around 5 to 6 hours sleep.

He went straight to the shower, although being quiet so as not to wake the girls; they could sleep in at their leisure, as Skye had volunteered to do the preliminary infiltration with the stolen uniform that would allow him to get bearings on the innards of the base before the three would raid it the next night.

He went over everything that he would take with him counting on his fingers while the hot shower water removed any smell that would be remembered and be traceable by canine species later. The uniform and card of course, the miniature camera he had brought that would map the facility as he walked around it, his combat knife, and if any emergencies arose he would have to bring his silenced pistol; he would keep the silencer in a separate pocket so the weapon would not look suspicious in its holster. He would also have to bring the soldiers rifle, so he would look properly equipped when he got there.

After drying himself off he slipped into the uniform, and looked into the bathroom mirror. He frowned, it reminded him of his days serving the Cornerian military. While he was not part of the combat corps, he still had a uniform he needed to maintain while he stayed on military premises. His thoughts trailed back to Janice again.

When he left the bathroom, he almost jumped when he saw Krystal standing there wrapped in naught but a white towel. "Are you done in there, Skye?"

He walked right by her towards his equipment which he had left in a pile on the kitchenette table the night before. "Yes, go ahead. I'm going to head out early to the base so I have plenty of time to look around. I should be back by ten, or perhaps as late as noon."

She went straight into the bathroom. "Alright, good luck in there."

He smiled to himself as he holstered his pistol. "I feel good about my luck recently."

**5 Minutes later**

**In Front of the Macbeth City Military Base**

Skye certainly felt he was well in costume; his bland dark green uniform was well kept and clean, certainly fitting to a soldier that was all too full of himself. His 10mm was holstered in a black leather holster that matched the uniforms black belt, and he had the suppressor for the weapon stowed in a pocket lower down his right leg. The rifle he had nabbed from the soldier the night before was of a more antique design then most of the weapons in use in Lylat; A sleek black painted rifle that was very rounded and professional looking; it had a small 2x scope on the top. It reminded him of a XM8 assault rifle he had seen in a museum one time. It seems the Venom military knew just as well as Skye did; that it doesn't matter how old metal projectile technology is, it will always be a perfectly effective way to kill someone.

((_Authors note: The XM8 is smexy, if you want a clear picture in your head of what this rifle looks like, google images XM8 rifle.))_

Skye had his rifle casually in his hands as he walked towards the front of the base; most of the soldiers he saw were busy doing something or another; whether it be getting into a vehicle to head to some other part of the city, talking about the most recent weekend or having a smoke. Skye simply proceeded to the tall fence gate that was the entrance to the compound naturally without speaking to anyone.

The gate didn't yield for him automatically when he approached it, an alligator wearing a combat helmet in the booth next to the gate was waving at him. Skye took this as a hint to show his card, and pulled it out of his pocket, showing it to the gator from a distance. Not bothering to look close enough to confirm the card was real, the gator hit a switch at his console and the big gate swung open, allowing Skye passage into the compound.

An old dog wearing an officers uniform was moving towards him, Skye kept his cool though; this bastard probably meant to talk to him, but he was very skilled at getting through tricky conversations without all of the information he needed. Lying was essential as an assassin; and Skye had become rather good at it over the years.

Soldiers saluted the officer as he walked by them, and the grey furred dog stopped in front of Skye. "I see you have the 8th infantry squad patch, son. You wouldn't know where Corporal McEllen is would you?"

Skye kept cool. "No, sir. Last I saw him he left for patrol during curfew hours or something; I haven't caught him since then. Is there a problem sir?"

The dog put his hand to his chin in wonder. "I sent him out to the slums district to look for a group of tourists that a couple men reported looking rather suspicious; I had sent McEllen to investigate. I wonder what happened to the idiot..."

Skye frowned at the officer. "Sorry sir, I don't know any more."

The dog began to walk away from him. "Just tell me if you see him, the idiots going to get a good day in the stockade for missing call-ins."

"Will do sir."

Skye got a bit nervous now; by some sick coincidence that soldier he killed was one that was sent to find him and the girls; now if anyone that knew the dog asked to see Skye's card, his cover would be blown open. He just hoped he wouldn't be asked anymore blasted questions.

Walking through the halls of the facility, the miniature camera that was hidden in the fabric of his uniform was recording the topography of the building as he walked; and was making a map he would be able to show the other two once he got back. He decided to check the prisons while he was there, it would give him some objective instead of walking around the base aimlessly and drawing unnecessary attention.

It didn't take him long to find the prison block, the idiotic cell guard was asleep on a chair in the hallway that lead to the cell block. Skye walked past the guard quietly, and continued on to the prison. Once he found it, he examined his surroundings; it was a dark, grey walled room that was in the basement of the base. A single awake guard was leaning against a wall now looking at Skye as he walked in, from his angle he couldn't see into any of the cells.

The guard, a squirrel, looked at him inquisitively. "Eh there mate, you here to relieve me? fuckin McEllen was supposed to take my place when he got back from his little errand for the captain, and since he didn't come back I've been stuck here for the last 8 hours."

"Yeah, go get some sleep. Sorry I didn't come sooner, just got back from patrol myself."

"Aye, amen to that. Have fun, the girl in there is a stingy little bitch."

The squirrel slung his rifle over his shoulder and with a yawn, headed out of the entrance Skye had walked in. He leaned against the wall the squirrel was on, and took a look inside the cell.

There was only one prisoner, a white furred cat. He gritted his teeth in shock. _'She looks just like Janice. Damnit! This mission just got a whole lot more complicated.' _ Her fur wasn't spotted like a leopard, but everything else about her was almost identical; long flowing black wavy hair, and green eyes that pierced their target like a rifle. She was wearing a black trench coat with green trim, with a green tube top and forest camo jeans underneath.

She was sitting in the back corner of her cell, eyeing her new supervisor. "What the fuck you looking at?"

He smirked. "You look a lot like someone I knew."

"Heh, was she as likely to rip your tongue out as I am?" She said with a sneer.

Skye looked to the corners of the room making sure there were no security cameras; there was one right above his head, and he pulled a little device out of his pocket designed for dealing with security cameras and put it on the back of the cam; it was designed to interfere with it's signal and play back a loop of what it saw, instead of what was actually going on. It would allow him to do whatever he pleased.

"Not when you hear what I have to say."

"I've heard all of your friends sick bastard offers, you would think they would have girlfriends."

He got closer to her cell and kneeled down, facing her eye to eye. "I'm not a Venomian soldier, I'm a member of Star Fox sent with two others to blow this base to kingdom come, to let the Cornerian first battle group to stomp the defenses here and get a foothold on Venom's side of the system."

She burst out laughing, which lasted for about a minute. Skye waited patiently, before she answered with a tear in her eye. "You really expect me to believe that? Member of Star Fox... Everyone knows there's only four."

"Myself and Katt Monroe are recent additions, we're here with Krystal as well, and I'm sure you know her. Were going to blow this place to hell, and if you don't want to be outside of it when it happens, please continue to ignore me."

Her look finally got serious. "Alright, fine. I believe you, you don't seem the prison guard type anyway, especially because of that pistol suppressor you have in your front pocket."

Skye looked down to his pants, the shape of the attachment was barely noticeable; he was impressed she was able to identify it so easily.

"Problem is, if you're going to blow this place up tomorrow night, it'll be too late for me anyway. I'm going to be zapped on the chair tomorrow morning."

Skye was right, this did complicates things. He wasn't just going to let her die in here, and her resemblance to Janice troubled him. "I'll see if the other two are A-OK with rescheduling to tonight, we should be able to get you out while were at it. Name's Skye Grayson, by the way."

She finally smiled. "Mina Sipher, pleasure."

Skye stood back up. "I got all the data I need on the place anyway, I should be back by tonight. I'm sure Katt and Krystal will agree to come tonight to get you out of here, it's not like were on a set schedule, as long as we don't take 3 days." He started to walk out the door.

"Yeah, see you then..." She stood up against the bars of her cell. "Wait, Skye?"

He turned around at the door. "Hmm?"

"Thanks, I thought I was dead for sure."

"Don't mention it. It's what I do."

With this, Skye left the prison cell and headed back up to the stairs into the white-washed military base. He wandered around it a bit more, stopping by the ammunition room (which was full of heavy explosives, just waiting to bust this building open like an egg) and the security checkpoint before making his way back out. He was lucky enough not to be stopped by any more annoying base officials.

He walked down the street naturally, looking as any other soldier on patrol as long as he was within sight of other troops. As soon as he was far enough away from the compound, he quickly slipped into a back alley, but his luck had ended there. A troop that was there, a black and white furred skunk, stopped him. "Hey, whoa there. What's the rush?"

Skye made the look of panic show on his face. "Some dick I could have swore shot at me, I thought I saw him run down this way."

"No ones coming down here, sure you didn't fuck up?" The skunk looked at Skye's unit patch on his shoulder. "Hey what the fuck? Since when were you in 8th squad?"

This shocked Skye, he noticed the skunk had the same unit patch as him. It was time to drop the act with this idiot. "Since I killed him and mugged his uniform."

He didn't give the skunk the chance to respond. He lifted his right knee with a rocket-like speed and plowed it into the soldiers gut, causing him to wince over in pain, probably having the wind knocked out of him temporarily. Before he could recover, Skye slammed his fist down on the skunks back and with a satisfying crack, the skunk dropped to the ground. He was wincing and squirming, without any wind to let out a scream from the pain he was obviously feeling. Skye stepped over the victim and took this chance to pull out his pistol and attach the silencer; and shoot the skunk in the back of the head.

Without putting away his weapon, Skye made a dash down the alley way and made his way towards the hotel. His disguise was useless from here on out anyway; he wouldn't need it tonight.

When he walked in the front entrance of the hotel, all of the bar patrons looked at him with a shocked look, expecting the 6 foot Venom Soldier they saw at the door to cause some trouble they hadn't deserved.

He looked at them with wonder why they would be glaring at him, and then remembered his uniform. "Oh, this. Just a disguise, I'm cool."

The patrons got back to their drinks, and Skye walked up to the bar. Jen already had a shot of vodka ready for him. "So, how'd it go sugar?"

He took the drink with a nod of thanks and sat down on one of the bar stools. "Pretty well, most of what could have went wrong decided to stay out of my hair. Got asked a couple questions, but nothing that would have pinned my identity."

She leaned in at him. "Sounds like tough work, glad it turned out alright. Good luck tomorrow!"

He finished off his drink in one slam and put the glass back on the bar, nodding at her again. "Thanks, we might need it."

With this, he got off the bar stool and headed back to the stairwell up to their hotel room. When he walked in, the two girls were watching the news. They both smiled at him, and Katt spoke. "Well? How'd it go?"

He ripped off the uniform shirt top with no regards to maintaining it and threw it to the side. "A couple snags, but nothing serious."

Krystal crossed her legs. "Snags?"

Skye sat down on the couch beside them. "There was a lone prisoner, she's scheduled for execution tomorrow morning. If were going to get her out safe, we need to pull this off tonight."

Katt gave a look of thought. "I'm pretty sure there shouldn't be any problems with that, did you kill any guards in the base? Anything to worry about for extra security?"

"No, most of it is pretty basic. Nothing we can't break into. Should be able to get her out safely too. A lot of troops in there though, not sure what the night shift is like but we should be prepared for a firefight if things go wrong."

She smiled. "No problem. Lets see the schematics."

He pulled the miniature camera from his pocket, and a little wire. He hooked the wire from the camera to the input slot of the holoprojector, and a map of the base lit up. "I've always loved this toy."

Katt and Krystal watched the building attentively, Krystal especially, who had never been inside the building herself. "You said we were going to insert through the roof, yes?"

Katt answered her question. "We should let you go in through the roof first above the security checkpoint, and then you can suppress the reaction of anybody that sees you barge in, and you can shut off all of the surveillance tech right then and there. Then, me and Skye drop in as well. Skye can handle the prisoner, and I'll set the explosives at the ammunitions depot. Sound good?"

Skye bent his back, causing it to snap a couple times. "Sounds as good a plan as any."

"I know, let's make sure we're prepared."

**11 PM Macbeth City Time**

**Behind the Macbeth Military Base**

The three were packing to the brim with weapons and explosives, having prepared for hours using the schematics for the base. Skye, Krystal and Katt all knew off by heart exactly where to go and what to do at each objective; and precisely where to insert in the roof.

Despite the fact Skye's fur was mostly grey and white, he was practically invisible. He made sure to wear as much black as he could covering his giveaway fur without restricting his movement or senses. Black long sleeved shirt, black pants, black shoes, even black leather holster for the pistol he brought. He wore a backpack which was also pitch black in which he carried various tools; a laser cutter for the electrified fence and the roof of the complex, a couple of disks he could use to hack systems, and several forms of security bashing devices such as 'lock busters' which were designed to completely erase all of the programming of a electronically locked door and force open it. He also carried his rifle which he had a suppressor on. He had a suppressor on his pistol as well, plus a new toy which he calls the "flasher", it was an attachment under the barrel that would temporarily blind targets in front of him with a specialized laser. The brilliant thing about the invention was, it made no big flash like similarly designed devices, the laser was almost invisible to anyone other than the person who takes it in the eyes.

Katt was packed a bit more heavily, but also wearing black. She had a black hoodie on with the hood up with matching pants. She had brought a laser submachine gun and attached a suppressor, and was wearing a black backpack similar to Skye's but larger; it contained all of the explosives she would need to send the base to hell. She brought little else.

Krystal was dressed somewhat more carefree, knowing she could manipulate the minds of anyone who had spotted her anyway. To Skye's annoyance, she was wearing a white tank top with urban camouflage pants. She had nothing else with her other than her contracted staff in a holster on her left leg, and a suppressed blaster pistol in a holster on her right leg. She needed little else; she would not even be leaving the security checkpoint.

The three were hiding behind brush behind the base, and Katt was looking through a set of night vision binoculars she kept in her pack at their objective. The base was on the edge of the city, one half of it was submerged in urban buildings, and the other half in forest. The city was very articulate with it's boundary. The outside of the base was predictably set up; the electrified fence surrounded the base in a large square; probably about a square kilometer. Towers that had two soldiers apiece with a spotlight that was scanning the area under it's jurisdiction with vigilance. The base was a bland dark steel building made of up several rectangular prism compartments. Many spotlights on top of posts automatically rotated throughout the base grounds, and there were soldiers everywhere, all armed with heavy rifles and machine guns, hunting to-be intruders.

Katt lowered the binoculars, the other two had already taken a look through them. "How do you guys think we can get through that? Its thick with spotlights, and they aren't on a predictable rotation."

Skye was scanning the distance from their position to the roof. "I have an idea. We can go above them."

Krystal had already read the leopards mind, and knew what his plan was. She kept silent, running calculations through her head to make sure it was viable.

Skye explained; "I can go in first, I should be able to outrun the spotlights. Once I get to the roof, I can run a line from here to the top of this tree, allowing you two to climb over to the roof as well."

Katt gave a skeptical look. "Alright, we can give it a try, but I don't like it."

The leopard ignored this comment and continued towards the base. He had already spotted a section of the fence that spotlights never seemed to check. He crept up silently out of the brush the three had hidden in, and pulled the laser cutter out of his pack, along with a pair of anti-conduction gloves.

To avoid attracting attention to the laser, it took less than a second to draw a quick circle in the fence. The piece of fencing he had cut out fell towards him, and he gripped it with the gloves and set it down to the side. He stopped all movement, making sure no guards noticed this. The soldiers continued on their rounds, undisturbed, unaware.

He put his fence tools back in his pack, and darted out of his hiding spot once his pack was secure on his back again. His swift, stealthy leopard legs moved him across the lawn of the base silently and rapidly, he followed the path he traced through the spotlights blind spot carefully; if one turned at him, he would be dead, and this mission would be a bust.

It wasn't even 10 seconds before he crossed the 100 or so meter dash to the wall of the base, and he wasted no time throwing on a pair of magnetic gloves, and scrambling up the wall of the complex, his feet barely keeping grip on the smooth surface as his powerful arms ripped him up the wall as if it were flat ground.

When he reached the cliff of the roof he climbed over the edge with a grunt and took a moment to catch his breath, putting the gloves back into his pack. He grabbed his thermal binoculars from his pack as he was putting back the gloves, and scanned the brush; he spotted his two companions quickly.

Wasting no time, he pulled yet another toy out of his backpack; a harpoon launcher attachment for his rifle. He removed the clip from the weapon and attached the harpoon barrel on the end, making sure the rope that accompanied the launcher was nice and loose so it would reach far enough to his companions.

Taking aim down the scope, he sought out the top of the tree his friends were sitting under waiting for him, and taking a moment to settle his aim, he pulled the trigger, sending the hooked projectile flying at the soft wood of the tropical tree.

Katt and Krystal shot their eyes up when they heard a muffled _FWUMP _coming from the top of the tree they were under, and it was safe for them to assume Skye had already finished his work. The fox and the cat scrambled up the tree with great dexterity, Katt reaching the rope first, and began climbing it across the base courtyard, beams of light from the spotlights passing right under them as they shimmied down the line.

It wasn't long before Katt and Krystal had made it to the roof. Katt whispered to Skye; "That went smoothly enough. Let's hope this luck keeps up."

Skye squinted his eyes. "This is going too easy, I'm beginning to worry."

Krystal sent a thought into their heads. "Or that, or the Venom army is being incompetent, as they always have been."

Katt, in a crouch, began to make her way to the spot on the roof they would be cutting in from. "Or we just kick ass."

They silently crept across the roof of the facility, amazed there was no pressure sensors to be found. Krystal's theory was beginning to take precedence; these soldiers didn't appear to know what they were doing.

Once they reached their special place on the roof, Skye got right to work getting out his laser cutting tool again. Krystal began to scan the room below with her telepathy. "Two guards, I'll start the interference as soon as you begin cutting."

Skye lowered the device, pointing its output end to the steel of the roof. "Affirmative. Ready."

As soon as the laser blade erupted from the end of the device and cut into the roof, Krystal's eyes shot to a shade of blue. From her view point, the guards were now both clutching their heads and becoming disoriented. She could knock them out right now, but it would exert her too much. They two guards were temporarily useless.

As soon as Skye finished cutting, he kicked the sliced metal in and dropped into the room. By the time he hit the floor of the large office, his pistol was already out of its holster. He quickly snapped the pistol in the direction of the first guards head, pulled the trigger, then to the second guard before he even watched the first guard die. He stopped to look upon his handiwork, the two victims were both hulled in the head, but the bullet didn't go clean through on either of them, and there was little blood splatter. A small hole in each of their heads emitted a slow ooze of blood, and the bodies slowly slid to the floor, where they would remain until the bombs went off.

Krystal and Katt jumped down into the room and drew their weapons. Krystal was already scanning the area again. "No one was alerted by the noise, there's one guard patrolling out in the corridor but he's heading away from us and not towards."

Skye was looking at the security monitors on the wall. "I see that."

She gave him a smug look and sat down in the office chair, and began immediately at work shutting down laser tripwires and automatic camera alarms throughout the base; she was even disturbed to see automatic turrets in several places throughout the base; she was sure to deactivate all of them.

"Ok, I'll stay here. Only thing in your way now is guards. Good luck you two, meet back here when you're finished."

Skye walked for the office door first. "Time to go get Mina."

Katt followed him. "Is she as cute as her name?"

Skye looked back at her before turning the knob on the door. "Worse. She looks like my sister."

Krystal looked over to Skye, suddenly sensing pain from him. Katt frowned as well, she didn't know the full story, but he knew that Janice Grayson was long dead.

Before opening the door, Skye took another peek at the monitors to check if there was anyone in the hall. He slipped out into the hall silently, and there was no one to be found. He knew the way to the prison, and he got right on his way. He pulled a device out of his pocket and attacked it to his arm; it was a portable cloaking generator. Katt had one as well and had already activated it. The two invisible cats silently moved off in their separate directions.

Katt had reached her objective first. A red furred fox guard was standing right in front of the door to the ammunition dump, with a metal projectile assault rifle in his arms. He was blissfully unaware that the cat that would be his death was standing right in front of him. Katt didn't want to use her pistol, due to the fact the blood splatter would alert passerby guards. Instead, she silently creeped up in front of him and struck his larynx with the palm of her hand, the impact temporarily disabling her cloaking field. The fox shot his eyes open with shock, no longer being able to breath. All he could do was grip his throat and struggle for air through the pain, there was no ability to scream. It didn't take long for the fox to drop dead on the floor. She noticed a console with a handprint on it, assuming it was a fingerprint identification lock, she picked up the dead guard by the arm and planted his hand on the console. It turned green, and the door shot open for her. She dragged the guard in with her.

The room was the second largest in the base short of the hangar; it was rather bland, and completely lacking in security guards other than the one outside, she assumed regular visitors to this room were either asleep or on night-shift patrol. The only things in the rooms were 20 foot tall shelves, and loads of crates. Wooden and metal crates of all shapes and sizes littered the room.

She stashed the body behind a couple crates of ammunition at the back of the room, and went back there herself. She got right to work pulling detonation charges out of her backpack and wiring them together to a little remote detonator device, being very careful with her work as to not accidentally set them off. Once she was finished, she made sure the bombs were well hidden from anyone looking inside, and activated the remote detonator module. She could now detonate the bombs at any time by hitting the switch on the remote that was sitting on her end table back at the hotel. She knew it would be a bad idea to bring it with her, incase she accidentally pressed it while moving through the base.

She reactivated her cloak and crept back out of the room into the hallway, making her way back to the security checkpoint.

Skye got to the prison area just as Katt was beginning to set up her explosives; it was not short on guards this time. One was beside the door inside of the prison, and he guessed there was more inside. As he was a safe distance from the door guard around a corner, he hit the button on the side of the headset on his head, to whisper to Krystal.

"Skye here, how many guards inside of the prison area?"

"Two, one just outside."

"Thanks, Skye out."

This wouldn't be too difficult, he had done this sort of thing before, and all guards on this particular mission were expendable. He checked the area for other guards before spinning around the corner with his pistol, his cloaking dropped as the silent weapon spat a metal projectile right through the unfortunate black furred Dobermans' eye. It dropped without a sound, blood oozed slowly out of the wound in it's head. He rushed to the body and ripped off a bit of cloth from his uniform and plugged the wound before it leaked blood onto the floor, that was the last thing he needed giving him away.

The door slid open automatically for him and he pushed the dogs body in the door and it shut behind him. It was dark, and he heard a conversation going on down the stairs in the cell block. The first voice was an annoyingly high pitched but still male voice, must have been a small dog or something.

"So sweetheart, last few hours. How does it feel, impending death?"

He heard the familiar voice of Mina. "Anything to get away from the smell of fucking idiots like you."

The other guard had a bit more of a deep tone, not as deep as Skye's though. "Lets see how much that mouthy jaw of yours flaps when its been ripped apart by a high powered rifle, eh?"

Mina slurred with disgust. "Go fuck yourself."

The annoying one spoke again. "Maybe I'll fuck you first, you're getting executed tomorrow, I doubt the commander will mind."

This made Skye extremely angry, he couldn't believe the shit he just heard. His pistol was already drawn, and he silently crept down the stairs. The larger grey furred cat guard had his rifle pointed at Mina, and the smaller guard who turned out to be a Chihuahua was opening the prison cell. Skye raised his pistol, and made two snap shots. The Chihuahua was first, and before the grey cat could even snap his eyes wide in shock, another bullet had penetrated his own brain.

Mina walked out of the cell calmly, not even disturbed by the two kills. "Just in time, Skye. Thank you."

He walked up to her. "Don't thank me yet, we still need to get out of this place."

"There's a room nearby where they stored most of my stuff, can we stop by there?"

"I doubt we can carry much luggage."

"I just need my weapons."

"Alright, lets go. We need to make it fast, though. It won't be long before another guard comes by."

Before the two cats rushed up the stairs and out of the room, Skye passed Mina a cloaking device. To his surprise, he didn't even need to say how it worked; she attached it to her arm and activated it before he had activated his own. Without a word on the matter, he lead her out of the prison.

The two invisible felines stopped in the hall. Skye whispered to his escortee; "Which way?"

"To the right, around the corner. First door on the right."

"How do you know the place so well?"

"Used to work here."

"Ah."

A guard was standing in front of the door, but before Skye had put a bullet in his brain, Mina stepped up to the raccoon and hit him in the neck with the side of her hand, the raccoon fell as her cloaking faded out.

Suddenly he heard a crackle in his communicator, and Krystal came over the line. "Skye, watch your ass, guard coming around the far corner of that hall."

Just as she said this, a brown furred dog with a plasma machine gun walked around the corner, only to meet a pellet in the eye from Skye's pistol. His own cloaking winked out.

"Thanks Krystal."

"Pleasure."

He followed Mina in to the "Evidence room." There was another dead guard in there, this one had his arm twisted at an off angle, and his neck was leaning in a similarly disgusting direction. Skye looked at the dead mouse with a cringe, crappy way to die, but he probably deserved it. Mina was digging through a crate of items, and pulled out what Skye had originally though were two black rods, but they were curved. Then he noticed the hilts; they were swords.

She walked right by him. "These were all I needed."

He followed her, and stepped ahead. "Okay. We're extracting at the security checkpoint, you know the way?"

Mina scratched her head as her cloak faded back in. "Not sure I remember, lead the way."

Skye and Mina met Krystal and Katt in the security checkpoint, and deactivated their cloaks. Katt was startled by their sudden appearance, Krystal not so much.

Skye was the first to speak. "Ready for extraction. Explosives set?"

Katt smirked. "Ready for boom."

Krystal stood up out of her chair and shot the terminal a couple times with her silenced blaster, it hissed and the lights on the screens in the room gave out. Sparks spit out of them in odd angles. "Alright, lets get out of here."

The roof of the room was low enough that all of the animals naturally powerful legs were good enough to jump up to the ledge, they climbed out and activated their cloaking devices, heading back towards the zip line that Skye had shot earlier.

Before they gripped the line and climbed across, Krystal gripped the side of her head. "I sense distress, someone must have found one of the bodies."

Skye picked up his rifle and scanned the lawn. "They don't have a means to activate the alarms, so we have time to extract. Move out."

It took the better part of two minutes for everyone to get down the line, and soldiers were just starting to yell and run about as the 4 animals ran from the base, spotlights began a hectic search of the yard; unfortunately for them allowing a clean quick escape from the outer boundaries of the base. They headed straight back to the hotel.

They walked into the hotel through the back door, Jen let them in. "Hey everyone! Did it go well?"

Katt spoke up. "Ready to blow it at any time, Jen!"

"Oooh! Can I watch?"

Krystal smiled at her. "Be our guest!"

The patrons of the bar stared in awe as the black-ops dressed animals walked right by them with Jen. Jen turned to them. "Nothings wrong guys, these are good guys, I'll be back in a minute to take more orders!"

As they were walking up the stairs, Jen turned to Mina. "Who's this?"

Skye introduced them. "Jen, meet Mina, she was a prisoner at the base. Mina meet Jen, owner of this fine establishment."

Mina looked at Jen with a kind smile. "I think I've had a drink here before, nice place."

Jen smiled at her. "Thank you, I hope you can come back some time! Business is pretty slow with the occupation but if this works out like Katt said it would, I might be able to get on my feet again."

They reached the hotel room, and everything was just as they had left it. Last pitch of luck they would need before hitting the detonator, they crowded around the large window with the view of the base. It was alight with activity, soldiers running about, and there were even a couple of tanks mobilizing.

Katt came out of her bedroom with the trigger, and the animals all looked at it as if it were the holy grail. Jen spoke up. "Oooh! Can I press it?"

Skye looked at the detonator, then at Mina. "Mina almost faced her death in there, I think she should get the honors."

Katt smiled at the newcomer. "I agree, Mina, would you please?"

She took the detonator with a predatory smirk. "I would LOVE to."

The animals faced the window, and Mina held the detonator in front of her, flipping the glass cover off of the big red button that spelt the doom of the base. She pressed it.

_BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM..........._

The vast detonation rocked the ground of the building. It was way bigger than they thought it would be, they all covered their eyes from the bright light. Once it dimmed down, they lowered their arms from their faces to see a crater where the base had been, along with scores of fires ravaging the crater itself and the surrounding streets.

Tanks and soldiers that were still on the street scrambled around, with no idea what had just happened. Skye was quick to grab his communicator. "Skye to Great Fox! Come in! Base successfully destroyed, we are extracting immediately, commence the assault! I repeat, commence the assault immediately!"

The 4 animals were quick to grab their bags and equipment, and Jen helped them pack some of their things. Skye's communicator buzzed again with the familiar voice of Fox. "Good job down there you three! We're jumping into system right now with the fleet!"

Within 5 minutes they were rushing out the door, and Jen was waving at them. "Come back soon!!! Thanks for everything!!!" The 4 refugees had no time to answer her goodbye.

_((Authors Note: Holy shit! 9,870 words and 22 pages in Microsoft word!!!! ITS OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAANDDDDDDD! I liked writing this chapter, finally introduced my second original character, I'll get to work on chapter 6 right away, review GO GO GO! ! See you next time!))_


	7. Chapter 6: Scramble

**Chapter 6**

**Scramble**

**Emperor Dash's Bedroom (Venom Palace)**

**10 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**1 AM Venom Time**

"_Grandson, Awaken."_

Dash awoke from his dreamless sleep with a start; he had been hearing the voice of Andross ever since the beginning of the war almost constantly, and he had begun to wonder whether he was hallucinating the whole thing, but these thoughts were quelled by the fact that the voice had supplied him with scientific knowledge that had allowed the creation of new bio weapons, and locations of older dormant ones. The octopus bio weapon he had sent to Aquas was a weapon that never saw the light of day as far back as the Lylat War, and it still remained dormant under the surface of the deep seas of Zoness before he had released it.

He looked to the left and right, it was quiet, until a beeping went off on the communication device he kept on his night table; one that he strictly demanded only be used for top priority emergencies while he was asleep.

Still half asleep, he reached over and hit the red button on the top of the device and a panicked voice erupted out of it. "My lord! Most sincere apologies for -"

The grumpy ape interrupted him. "Spare me your useless babbling. Tell me the problem immediately before I feed you to my latest toy!"

The voice became even more infused with fear. "We have just received reports that he anti-ship gun control base on Macbeth has been destroyed!"

Dash had just been thrown into a far more fowl mood. "What did you just say?"

"Destroyed my lord! Bombed! What are your orders?"

He sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes, thinking for a moment. "Where are the 2nd and 3rd battle groups?"

"Sector Z and Titania sir, standing by."

Dash gritted his teeth. "Then what the hell are you waiting for? They obviously took the guns down to bring in their own fleet! Send the 2nd battle group to deal with their assault fleet, then once the battle has begun, trap them in with the 3rd!"

"Right away my lord!"

The communicator turned off, and Dash laid back in his bed contemplating the situation. How could have the whole base have been destroyed with out him being alerted of the battle in progress? Not even a covert operation could get away with such a audacious move without it reaching his own ears before the deed was done.

_"We both know who the culprit is, Dash."_

Dash sat up with his eyes widened. "Star Fox, they must have been reformed already."

_"And what will you do?"_

"I will have to have them all killed somehow."

"_They are not to be underestimated, they have been the instrument of my demise four times, you must take extreme caution when dealing with them."_

Dash laid back again and stared at the ceiling. "But what can we do against such an opponent? Fox McCloud and his gang have crawled through every weapon that was thrown at them, every time Venom was thwarted. Is there anything we can do to stop them?"

_"There is a way... They have but one weakness, they rely too much on each other... You can use this to your advantage my grandson, their friendships are the key to our victory."_

He closed his eyes, plunging into deep thought. "We will have them, grandfather. They may have beaten you in the past, but both of us together can bring Fox McCloud to his knees."

_"We must cut deep into his heart, or he shall never be stopped."_

**Surface of Macbeth**

**Arwing Landing Zone**

After a kilometer run with all of their equipment slung on their backs, Skye, Mina, Krystal and Katt were all relieved to see the Arwings in the same clearing in which they had left them, completely untouched as they had left them.

Katt and Krystal wasted no time jumping into their cockpits, but Skye and Mina both paused. Skye had raised his paw to his head in a gesture of embarrassment, dropping his bag. "I knew we had left something out in the mission planning."

Katt looked at him with a puzzled look while Krystal hit herself in the head as she read what was going through Skye's mind. Skye looked at Katt. "Just how did we plan on extracting Mina with one seater fighters?"

Mina gave a disgruntled look, one that suggested she was nervous being around people that had so poorly thought out such a dangerous mission. Katt spoke up. "What about the cargo bay? They should be able to fit a person."

He looked at her, shaking his head. "There is no gravitic stabilizer or life support in the cargo bay of the Arwing II's, that would be an extremely stupid way to die."

Mina was looking at the Assassin thoughtfully. "There's no way to fit two in the cockpit?"

Skye looked at her thoughtfully. "I had refitted my Arwings cockpit with a bit of extra space incase I had to carry weapons with me inside of it, I imagine there would be enough room, but it would be an extremely tight fit. Are you sure?"

She gave him a condescending look, one suggesting he wasn't using his brain, with her arms crossed. "It's either that, or I stay here and get gunned down by the scrambling Venom troopers. I'm sure I'll live."

Skye had been walking over to his Arwing while she said this, and threw his bags in the cargo hold. Mina walked up beside him and slid in her two swords she had been carrying snugly with the duffel bag. He jumped up into the cockpit with a single bound, landing in the seat. "Very well then, hop in."

She jumped up onto the ships wing, and looked at him. "On your lap?"

He rolled his eyes. "If you don't want off of this rock..."

She didn't hesitate any further, climbing in right onto his lap. He buckled the pilots harness over them both, and looked around her starting up the Arwings power up checklist. She moved her head to the side to allow him a better view of the controls. The canopy slid shut, and only cleared the top of Mina's head by a couple of inches. She shifted as how tight the space in the cockpit became shockingly apparent.

Katt's voice snapped across the communicator in the cockpit. "Wow, that looks like a tight squeeze. Sure you're not going to suffocate in there you two?"

Skye growled. "That's enough Katt, we're still on mission. Launch when ready and follow me out, back to the Great Fox." He did feel uncomfortable though, if he weren't as conditioned as he was he might not have agreed to it. it was tight enough that their breathing was restricted. As the Arwings jumped out of the forest canopy and began their ascent into the atmosphere, Skye made sure to increase the cockpit oxygen input to reflect two people needing to breath in it. Mina was pouting, this wasn't nearly as graceful an exit she had been looking forward to, and now her first impression to the legendary Star Fox was one that would always remind them of this, they would never take her seriously.

When they broke the atmosphere of Macbeth, the fight had already begun. A whole jumble of ships had jumped into system, both Cornerian and Venom alike. The Cornerian fleet was tightly grouped and organized, and Skye could see the Great Fox out in front if it. The Venom fleet was not so organized, several ships were still jumping into system, and they seemed to be on random trajectories scrambling into position. This was perfect, the Venom Navy was caught with their pants down.

Skye hit the boost and made his way to the Great Fox. "I'm going to drop off Mina at the Great Fox, you two join the rest of the team in the front lines." Krystal changed course without affirm, and Katt said "Kay" and joined Krystal as her wing mate.

When Skye reached the Great Fox, he arrived just in time to watch the rest of the Arwings take off. Fox, Falco and Slippy were hitting their boosts and shooting towards the scrambled fleet ahead of them at top speed. Fox came over the communicator; "Welcome back you three, did it go alright?"

Skye rolled his eyes. "Other than having two people crammed in my cockpit, it went fabulous. I'm dropping off our guest on the Great Fox then I'll come in to join you."

"Understood, Fox out."

Skye took extra time guiding his fighter to the deck of the Great Fox's docking bay, operating the controls was far trickier with another person crammed in with you. As soon as he set down, he took a breath of fresh air as the canopy hissed open. Mina wasted no time hopping out of the ship.

She turned to look at him after she had recovered from her jump. "So I'm just gonna wait here until the fight's over?"

He started to close his canopy again. "Looks that way, we need to finish up what we started before we can figure out what to do with you. There's signs around the ship that'll lead you to the galley, help yourself if you're hungry."

She hesitated, but turned to walk to the docking bay elevator. "I'll do that....Tha-" She stopped herself, realizing his Arwing was already getting thrust again and heading out the docking bay doors.

By the time Skye had burst back out of the Great Fox, the fight had already begun. The Cornerian fleet had dispersed along the Venom line, taking individual targets. The Cornerian ships splashed into the fight like a tidal wave, accompanied by the black space around them being filled with thousands of different coloured laser blasts. Skye checked his radar, he noticed 5 green blips that represented the Arwings buzzing around one of the Venom dreadnaughts like pissed off wasps. He hit the boost to catch up with them.

Fox smirked as he passed for his first run on the Venomians lead dreadnaught; there was only three of them, with only a decent number of smaller escort ships, he guessed about 10. Peppy's fleet was determined and aching for combat, and about one and a half times the Venom Fleet's size. This entire operation was headed for success; and may be one that tips the scales in Corneria's favor.

Fox, Slippy and Falco were formed up in an arrowhead formation rushing at the lead ship, and as soon as they came in range, they broke off individually to dodge incoming heavy laser fire from the ship. Slippy yelped as a blast almost took off his port wing. Falco had seen it happen. "Watch your ass Slip, these guys mean business!"

Fox rushed in ahead and pumped a smart bomb at the ship, Falco and Slippy followed suit. The explosions enveloped the mid-section of the ship, and its shields flickered out. Fire coming in from the rapidly approaching Cornerian line started to tear apart the front of the ship as the three pilots scattered away from the ship, heading towards the next capital ship.

The Cornerian ships broke upon the Venom line like a train through a glass panel, Venom ships began to scatter and take defensive positions as the Cornerians began their bloodthirsty hunt for revenge from the battle over Fichina. Some enemy ships even turned tail and ran, only to be chased down.

Skye caught up with Krystal and Katt who were just getting into the fight. As he pulled up he called out on the comm; "Did I miss anything?"

Katt took the lead and shot them towards the third dreadnaught that Fox's group wasn't after. "Just Venom turning tail and running, as usual."

Skye frowned, something wasn't right about this. He dialed in the Patriot on his communications board while the three Arwings sped towards the third dreadnaught, he absently tilted the ship left and right to avoid the odd laser round. "General Hare, Skye here. Do you think they may try the same tactic they used before?"

Peppy, on the bridge of the Patriot, smirked when he heard Skye. "Peppy here, I'm sure they will, which is why I have the rest of the 1st battle group standing by near Sector X if they do."

"Affirmative, Skye out." he chuckled to himself, this was going to be a butchery. The three fighters unloaded their smart bombs on the dreadnaught as they passed, yielding similar results to Fox's run, however this time it wasn't taking capital ship fire from only it's bow, the Cornerian ships were well embed in the Venom line. The dreadnaught was quickly awash in laser energy and flame once its shields buckled, and there was nothing left but debris and dust after the pilots passed it.

**Border of Sector Z**

**Venomian 3rd Battle Group**

The commander of the Venomian Dreadnaught _Crisis Song, _an old owl by the name of Mark Taren, stood in front of his captains seat. Out the view screen of the ship he could see the vast collection of ships under his command all pushing their way out of the radiation clouds of Sector Z, preparing for the hyperspace jump to Macbeth. He looked at his communications officer. "Open a channel to the whole battle group."

The soldier nodded, and after hitting a few buttons on his console he looked back at his commander. "Channel open Admiral."

He looked at the view screen, all of the ships that he was about to communicate to were highlighted. "Alright gentlemen, The Cornerians think they have won the day; but we are about to crush their hopes like a grape. Prepare for jump to Macbeth immediately, and launch on my mark. "

Ships slowly drifted into position, all pointing in the direction of Macbeth. Once they all seemed in position, Taren pointed at his view screen as though he were at the front of a legion of soldiers himself.

"Mark."

He lowered his hand as the ships all stretched for a millisecond and plunged towards their target. He sat down for the mere minutes it would take to reach Macbeth.

"Tactical, prepare weapons and defenses for combat. We're going loud as soon as we drop into orbit."

The skunk turned to face him. "Aye, sir. Weapons primed, shields ready."

It wasn't long before the ship snapped out of the slipstream into orbit around Macbeth, where he saw Cornerian ships pounding the hell out of the 1st Battle Group. All of the ships under his command formed up behind the Crisis Song, and he heard the familiar hum of energy being transferred to the shields. Many of the Cornerian ships turned to face the new threat, but he outnumbered them by more than two to one.

"This is going to be a great victory for Venom, gentlemen. Let the games begi-"

He was interrupted by the Scanners officer, a rather scrawny looking raccoon. "Sir! Enemy contacts just jumped into system! Both remaining Cornerian battle groups! We are now outnumbered two to one!!!"

Taren gritted his teeth. "Damnit! All ships form up on me, defensive formation! Do NOT let them reorganize!"

**The Patriot**

**Bridge**

Peppy couldn't help but smile to himself, Dash must have thought himself so clever to bring in his extra garrison after his original was depleted. Unfortunately for him, the Cornerian Navy was not so foolish as to fall for the same trick twice; especially because they had countered it the second time they used it.

He sat down in his captains chair as he watched the last ship of the renowned Venomian 1st Battle Group be torn to pieces by the Patriots guns. The Arwings, the Great Fox and the rest of his Battle Group had already formed up towards the new set of enemies, and the 3rd and 4th Battle Groups had just jumped into system, and were moving to join his own forces.

**The Front Line**

**Back to Star Fox....**

Fox smiled to himself. "Anyone feel a spark of nostalgia? Reminds me of that idiot Oikonny's rebellion."

Krystal was the first to reply. "I bet this will be just as pathetically easy, too. They walked right into Peppy's trap."

Falco sounded frustrated. "Damn, I'm all out of smart bombs already."

Slippy was quite the opposite. "Oh yeah baby, I'm just getting started."

The six fighters formed up in an arrowhead formation in front of the Great Fox. Fox watched on his radar as the reinforcements that Peppy had brought in surged into position with the fleet, Peppy's fleet was right on the Great Fox's tail.

Once the two menacing fleets met, all hell broke loose. Lasers batteries and disruptor cannons lit up the pitch black of space, and the Arwings flew into the fray effortlessly. Clouds of fighters both Venom and Cornerian alike clashed in the battle zone, some going down in the fur-ball like dogfight, some being wiped out by stray ship battery shots.

The Arwings ignored the fighter action, going straight for the lead capital ships in the Venom Fleet. As soon as they were down, the fleet would be in disarray; and the quicker they did it, the less Cornerian lives would be lost in the conflict.

The six Arwings got to the enemy line quickly utilizing the sleek fighters boosts, Slippy falling to the back of the pack due to his slow Bullfrog. The lead dreadnaught was slightly modified; it appeared to be somewhat larger, and had a noticeably larger array of weapons. Fox assumed this was a new model; no matter, he would smash it like all of Dash's other toys. Star Fox was done playing nice.

The huge ship's guns made futile attempts to target the nimble Arwings, leaving trails of death plummeting in random directions off in space. Fox chuckled to himself as he watched one of the Venomian fighters get vapourized with one of the bolts of plasma meant for Fox. The Arwings angled in for their attack. "Alright team, let 'em have it!"

As he said it, the team poured lasers on the ship, none missing their mark. The shields of the vessel flickered in protest, and more guns on the ship turned away from the enemy fleet to try to knock down the Arwings; space became thick with energy.

The team shot past the ship and stopped firing for a moment, getting locks on oncoming fighters before they pulled for another pass on the ship. Green balls of death leaped from the teams Arwings (Except for Katt and Slippy's plasma fire) and tore through the oncoming squadrons, some of the explosions were lucky enough to take more than one fighter down. The angry wasp-like cloud of fighters scattered, grouping back with the remains of their squadrons for a revenge run on Star Fox.

Fox looped around back towards the lead ship. "Alright guys, if you have smart bombs left form up on me for a pass on that ship. If you don't, start bringing down those fighters.

He heard 5 affirmatives. Krystal and Slippy formed up on Fox, while Skye, Katt and Falco all scattered towards the cloud of to-be victims.

**Bridge of the Great Fox**

The door of the bridge hissed open for Mina as she wandered in, looking at the battle that was happening in the view screen. A gray plated half-skeletal robot was sitting in the captains chair. She watched as large golden bolts of disruptor fire leaped from the front of the ship pummeling the ships in front of the Great Fox.

Rob spoke up; 'YOU WERE INSTRUCTED TO WAIT IN THE GALLEY."

Mina walked up beside the robot, taking a look at the famous quartermaster of the legendary Star Fox team. "Is it alright if I watch the fighting from up here? The impacts of the hits were making kinda hard to eat anything."

The robot did not turn to face her. "VERY WELL. I MUST ASK YOU NOT TOUCH ANY OF THE CONSOLES, AND PLEASE ALLOW ME TO CONCENTRATE. MY PROCESSING POWER IS AT MAXIMUM THRESHOLD PILOTING THE GREAT FOX."

She said no more, and let ROB at his work, before a thought came to her. "Could I help? I can operate a ships guns."

"CALCULATING..." She noticed the ships guns stopped firing as she did this, the robot must have really been struggling to run the ship on it's own. It did look rather old. "AFFIRMATIVE. WEAPONS CONSOLE IS TO YOUR LEFT."

She didn't hesitate sitting down at the nearest console to her, there was a screen that was already set up with a manual crosshair with a view of where the guns were mounted on the lower-front of the assault carrier. A small circular hatch opened up on the surface of the console that revealed a joystick, with labeled triggers and all.

She smiled to herself, this was going to be far more entertaining than sitting in the galley.

**Bridge of the Crisis Song**

Admiral Mark Taren was mortified, he had never lost a battle before, and he appeared to be about to learn what it was to lose a space battle. More and more of his weapons crews were being devoted to shooting down the pesky Star Fox assailants; but he knew as well as anyone on that ship, that this would be a cake walk for the legendary pilots. The admiral was going to either run, or die in this engagement. He hated having to consider the former, but feared the latter more.

His tactical officer faced him with sweat running down his brow. "Sir! Shields have taken critical damage! If we do not get out of the line of fire soon the hull will buckle!"

Taren broke, this was too much. The Great Fox and the Patriot, two legendary ships, plus the entire Star Fox team were pounding on his ship, while his entire fleet was enveloped by death from the Cornerian fleet surrounding them.

His voice was panicked, he was done. "To hell with it! All forces retreat! Get back to the rear line! Back to Sector Z!!!"

His officers did not waste a second, the ship turned around with all of the energy it could muster, completely ignoring the debris of a small frigate as the Crisis Song pushed it right out of the way.

**The Arwings**

Fox was ecstatic. This naval victory had been the best since the pummeling of the Venomian invasion fleet at Sector Y during the Lylat Wars; except in that case THEY were outnumbered.

He noticed the massive ship they had been speeding up to was starting to pull away. "What's wrong, running away?"

Krystal laughed. "I can feel him from here, the commander of that ship is absolutely mortified." She paused, and her smile became wicked. "Wait a second, this is the man that ordered the invasion on Aquas."

Slippy bared his teeth, this was the chance he had been waiting for. "Fox, Krystal, this loser is mine!"

Fox didn't want to get in the enraged toads way. "All yours Slippy, we got your back."

Slippy took the lead in the formation, quickly catching up to the slow capital ship. He wasted no time arming his last smart bomb, he was going to ram the explosive right into the bridge of this son of a bitch. The slower Arwings boost took him as fast as it could, and it was still quick enough to overtake the capital ship. He strafed some of the guns on the side of the ship to see if its shields were weakened, and to his delight, the plasma wiped the guns off the face of the dreadnaught; all Slippy passed by was debris and flame.

Fox picked up three fighters that took position behind the Arwings on radar, and slammed on the brakes. "I got these three jokers."

The fighters kept chase with Krystal and Slippy, hoping to get a chance at stopping the enraged Slippy's bombing run. No such luck. Fox locked a green laser bomb on the center fighter, and it tried to break off a moment too late; the ball of death caught the victim right in the engines, and the explosion took out his two companions as well. Fox boosted to catch up with Slippy and Krystal, and heard the sound of debris pinging off of his hull as he passed through what was Slippy's pursuers.

It was time for the man responsible for the destruction of Slippy's home world to die.

Admiral Taren was biting his talons on the bridge of the Crisis Song, he felt that his only remaining objective was to survive this engagement; to hell with the rest of the battle group; they were doomed from the start, but he could still get out of this alive.

He had this thought a moment too soon, as he saw three grey and blue ships fly dangerously close the bridge and loop around to face him. "All guns shoot them down! Shoot them down now!!!!"

The order came too late, the lead Arwing fired a small red projectile that got larger and larger as it approached. The bomb shattered through the front view screen, before his old eyes gave out.

Suddenly it was hot, intensely hot, then nothing. All black.

The three Arwings pulled away as the dreadnaughts bridge detonated, a bright ball of flame erupted from the bow of the ship where the bomb had been so expertly placed; and a chain reaction started within the massive vessels hull. Explosions erupted from sides of the ship until the ship suddenly was winked out of space in one massive detonation, nearby enemy ships were thrown off balance, the Arwings had made it clear in time to avoid the shock.

The rest of Peppy's ships dove into the fight and let loose on the remaining ships; all of which were scattering, or in the process of exploding. It was mere minutes before the battle was done. Fox smiled to himself during the final push. "Good job today team, lets get back to the Great Fox."

The tired team, especially Skye, Krystal and Katt, redirected their ships towards the Great Fox docking bay, which was pulling away from the fight back towards Macbeth.

**10 Minutes Later**

**Great Fox Docking Bay**

The Arwings were all docked back in the Great Fox, and the wrung up pilots were jumping (a couple falling) out of their cockpits. The ground team was especially exhausted, it was about 3 in the morning Macbeth time; only hours ago had they infiltrated the military base on the surface. Mina was waiting for them in the bay.

'That was fun, do you guys do naval battles often?"

Fox gave her a weird look. "Fun? You were waiting in the galley weren't you?"

She shook her head. "Your robot let me man the disruptor cannons for something to do."

He nodded walking past her, but turned back to her before he forgot; "Oh yeah, we got an extra room you can use until we figure out where to bring you."

She nodded her head in thanks. "Ok, thank you Mr. McCloud."

He continued walking to the elevator in an exhausted slump, the ground team destroying the base woke him up after only 3 hours sleep, he needed to get back to bed. "Fox is fine."

She followed him out, the other pilots weren't far behind. They all went in the elevator, Slippy was the only one who didn't look tired. The adrenaline was probably still wearing off in him.

As they ascended to the crew quarters the elevator stopped prematurely, everyone looked around, wondering what the heck was going on, until they realized they stopped on the med bay level. Slippy walked out of the elevator; safe to assume he went to see Amanda.

As the elevator got moving again, Katt suddenly collapsed. Despite the sleepy state Falco was in, he still shot beside her to catch her. Everyone was startled, except for Skye who knew why she collapsed. Falco naturally checked for normal breathing; and there was. She was simply asleep. He picked her up bridal style and the elevator doors opened, the squad slinked out.

They would debrief in the morning, no one really felt like talking about that mission right now. The adrenaline of the moment was strong; but now that it had worn off everyone was ready to get some shuteye. Fox took the liberty; "Night everyone, we'll debrief in the morning over breakfast..."

He heard 3 "Okays", 2 "Good nights" and 1 cheery "Night!" from Mina. Skye suddenly realized that he had forgot his bag in his Arwing cargo bay, but didn't really care. He would get his stuff in the morning.

Fox had just walked in his bedroom door with Krystal when the walls began their cursed beep again. "Damnit, ROB! This had better be good." He sat on his bed, while Krystal went straight to the bed and passed out, only bothering to remove her boots before hand. She completely ignored the beeping.

"CONTACT FROM GENERAL PEPPY."

"Reroute it to my bedroom screen."

Once he said this, a picture of Peppy sitting in the captains chair of the _Patriot_ came into view on the wall furthest from his bed. "Fox, good job today. The 3rd battle group is going to head for Sector Z next, and My own group is preparing to hit up Titania soon, but we're going to take a week to rest and recuperate."

Fox laid back on his bed. "Tell me tomorrow, Peppy. Too tired to discuss tactics tonight."

The old hare raised an eyebrow. "Don't even want to talk payment?"

Fox simply groaned. "MORNING. McCloud out." ROB took the liberty of shutting down the screen. Under normal circumstances he would have had his payment revoked for treating the supreme general like that, but he had known Peppy since he was a boy; neither did Fox much care. He would worry about the details in the morning. Snuggling up beside Krystal, he drifted off to sleep.

Falco carried Katt into his room, which they now shared, setting her down gently. Katt stirred and opened her eyes. "Awwe, Falco, did you carry me in here?"

He rolled his eyes. "What, I was just going to leave you lying in the elevator?"

She returned the gesture, rolling her own eyes before pulling off her boots, but not bothering with the rest of her clothes. She rolled over onto her side, and before passing out again, said; "I love you, you idiot." He didn't even bother replying, he just lay beside her, and passed out almost as quickly as she did.

Skye kicked his boots off flying at his far wall, he was pissed off. Why was he so annoyed that Mina looked so much like his sister? It couldn't have been more than coincidence. That's when it occurred to him she met her under the same circumstances that Janice had died; breaking out of a military base. Feelings of guilt washed over him again; he could have got her out just as easily as he had gotten Mina out. He had let Janice down, and now Mina's face would remind him of his failure every time he saw her. He went weak at the knees, and the first tear he shed since the death of Janice rolled down his cheek.

He only hoped she wouldn't be staying for long, so he could forget the incident again.

He was too stressed to think on the matter further, just letting his brain burn out, he tossed his shirt off to the side and collapsed on his bed, not caring about how he laid there. He would worry about this bullshit in the morning.

Slippy wore his mourning face as he walked into the medical bay, his love was still laying motionless on her bed, he ran his quick eyeball of the life support systems; still nominal. The recovery was slow; and Slippy couldn't help but keep an eye on her as much and as often as he could. He sat on the bed beside hers, as he usually did each night.

"Amanda, I got him. I killed the guy that did this to you."

No reply came from the pink-skinned frog, but Slippy kept talking anyway. "I put a smart bomb right down his throat for what he did, maybe everyone at home can rest a bit easier with that jerk in his grave."

He sighed, looking down to the floor. "But Dash is still out there, making people suffer. I don't know why he's doing it, but he isn't going to go unpunished Amanda. I'll get him too."

He slipped off of the medical bed he was sitting on and bent down, pecking his comatose lover on the cheek. "Promise." Waddling out the door, he decided to go to bed, wondering where this war was going to send them next.

**The Next Morning**

Fox felt a light, warm push on his shoulder, or at least he thought it was his shoulder. His mind rushed with delight; it was the push, without the infernal beeping! All that he needed to complete his morning was that angelic voice again;

"Fox, Fox honey, wake up."

He wasn't afraid to open his eyes this time, all he would see was the angel, without the god forsaken beeping. His blaster would lay to rest today. His eyes crept open, and the gorgeous blue furred vixen he loved was what greeted his eyes.

"Good morning, Fox."

He grinned. "Angel fallen from heaven? I can give you a ride back up in the Arwing if you want..." He yawned, as she giggled with a blush. For some reason, his most romantic lines only drifted out of his mouth when he was half a sleep. A fact which amused her and annoyed her at the same time.

She sat beside him on the bed. "Everyone else is already awake, we're about to start having breakfast. Peppy already called once, had something urgent about the payment he wanted to talk to you about.... not sure why he's so eager to pay our fee, but he seemed excited about something."

Fox frowned as he sat up on the side of his bed. "Even Falco is awake?"

She giggled again and walked towards the door. "Yes, even Falco beat you this morning. Its almost 11 AM LST Fox. I'll be waiting for you in the Galley, ok?"

He yawned one more time before wandering into the bathroom for a shower. "Okay, I'll see you there gorgeous."

He wandered into the bathroom and pulled a towel off of the railing of the shower, and cranked up the hot water, casting his clothes aside without regards to where they landed. Too tired to care, he would worry about it after his shower when he was more awake.

He stepped in, and the hot water worked almost instantaneously to bring him to his senses. As his mind crawled to its full speed, he started to go over things he needed to worry about today; payment for the last mission, Arwing restock and repairs, and what to do with the POW the ground team picked up from the base. He took a minute to remember her name; Mina he thought he heard Skye call her.

He was quick to clean himself, remembering that Krystal said she was waiting for him down in the Galley. He dried himself and changed into a gray T-shirt and blue jeans, not bothering to arm himself. He didn't plan on killing anything today.

Wandering down to the Galley, a nice pastry-like smell filled his nostrils immediately as the Galley door slipped open. Falco, Krystal and Katt were at one table, and they saved a seat for him. Slippy and Skye seemed deep in conversation, but he ignored the details; what he wanted to know was what smelled so delicious. His eyes wandered to the counter leading from the Galleys kitchen; and what he saw made him drool. Pop-Tarts, one of the most delicious inventions ever. They had been a quick meal solution as far as anyone in the Lylat System could remember; but no one cared about the details; pop-tarts were delicious, and that's all that really mattered in the end. He scooped a couple up on a plate from the stack that was beside the plate of pastries, and looked up at the screen in the corner of the room, that was displaying the news.

He sat down with Falco, Katt and Krystal. Falco said with a jeer; "Hey, you're finally awake. Next time you make fun of me for being late, I'll remember this."

"Stress got the better of me. Can you believe it? I turn 35 years old in a week from now."

Krystal smiled. "I know, and I already have your birthday present in mind."

He grinned, looking at the combat boots on his feet. She must have thought him looking down meant something else, cause she shook her head, not bothering to read his mind. "No Fox, something better than that."

Katt burst out laughing, and Falco smiled, taking another bite out of his pop tart. Fox smiled at her, not realizing she meant better than sex, not his boots. "Better than my boots?"

Her grin faded into a light smirk, realizing she misunderstood him. "You'll see."

Falco interrupted the exchange. "Hey, look at the news."

A red vixen in a black suit holding a microphone was standing in front of a scene of utter destruction that was once the Macbeth Military base.

"_Yesterday, late at night here on the formerly Venom occupied Macbeth, the first major victory for the Cornerian Army has had its effects shown in due splendor in downtown Macbeth City. The former military base that was responsible for the planets defense systems was completely destroyed by an unknown group allowing the Cornerian fleet to deal a massive blow on the occupying Venomian forces, and the Cornerian Marines were quick to mop up the remaining presence on the ground afterwards. Some citizens speculate that the team responsible for the destruction of the base was none other than the legendary Star Fox team, but that is yet to be confirmed by any official sources. This victory marks the shortest ever interplanetary occupation; barely having lasted longer than a week."_

Fox smiled at the screen. "Think Peppy will tell everyone it was us?"

Krystal swallowed the bit of pop tart that was in her mouth. "It may be better if he doesn't, it's not public knowledge yet that Skye or Katt are on the team, we might be able to use this trick again for covert insertions."

Falco wrapped his wing around Katt's shoulder, which the three noticed, was the first public display of affection from him. "Or, we can tell the public, and you three get the recognition you deserve for pulling that off. From now on we should leave the covert ops to the covert ops, were front line pilots, not assassins."

"Speak for yourself, Falco. Skye actually IS an assassin." Fox said before taking another bite out of his last pop tart.

The groups' kindly chat was interrupted as a final hiss from the door hailed Mina's entrance into the Galley, everyone looked at first, which made her cross her arms, but still blush.

Mina was wearing the same clothes she was the day before, but appeared freshly showered. A green tube top underneath an open black sleeveless long coat, with forest camouflage jeans. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail today, but her hair was so long the tail still reached down to the base of her own tail. Skye was the first to look away.

To break the awkward silence, Fox pointed back at the plate of pop tarts. "Still a couple pop tarts left, help yourself."

All of the eyes in the room shifted to what they were doing again. As Mina walked by Slippy and Skye at their table, she picked up a few words of their conversation.

Skye was trying to make a diagram of a sphere with his hands. "You see, the G-Diffuser uses the string theory to manipulate the gravitons surrounding the Arwing by manipulating their charge with an extremely high frequency tachyon pulse, so high that gravitons are the only thing they effect..."

She was lost already, she wasn't a quantum mechanic. She knew Skye was a stealth artist, but a physicist? She had also heard about Slippy being the teams expert on mechanical repair, so why was Skye explaining how the Arwing works to someone so famously proficient? She would figure it out later.

Grabbing a couple pastries on a plate she walked back to Skye and Slippy's table, pulling out a chair. "You two mind?"

Skye looked at Slippy who didn't hesitate. "Of course! Please do."

She sat with them, and she noticed right away Skye was having a hard trouble averting his eyes. "You ok, Skye?"

He looked down at his plate, which was empty short of a few crumbs. "You look stunningly alike to someone I once knew, that's all."

Slippy ignored what just occurred, even before Mina could test her curiosity further. "Skye, the thing is, I thought the string theory was never proven; how did you know it would work?"

He appreciated Slippy's distraction, getting his mind back on the subject. "Well, I was pretty sure I came to a breakthrough on the subject; and I decided to test it further to see if it would work for my idea for the Arwing; Problem was, by the time I had an untested prototype, the first invasion from Venom came..."

Slippy's jaw drop. "You put an untested G-Diffuser in the first Arwing?"

Skye smirked. "General Pepper demanded a progress report on the project, saying he needed the fighter finished whether the prototype G-Diffuser was ready or not. When he asked me about it, well, I lied. Told him it was prepared and tested, and it would work just as my original specs specified. I bet a lot onto that, not thinking they would be brought into combat so soon.... Two hours after I finished installing the G-Diffusers in the prototype SFX Arwing I's, Fox McCloud came down with you, Peppy and Falco."

The frog gritted his teeth in nervousness. "You gave us prototype fighters that had a gravitational manipulation device that wasn't even tested?!"

Skye smirked and crossed his arms. "Do not get me wrong, Slippy. I was gritting my teeth when that psycho Fox decided to run it through the black hole. I told you I was sure about my theory, and I was right, wasn't I? Biggest breakthrough in spacecraft technology to date. Not that I was given credit, of course." He frowned with that last statement.

Slippy frowned as well, he remembered the story from there. Mina looked completely lost, but she guessed that something happened to have him driven out of the SFX military development program somehow. Then, the walls began to talk. She recognized the voice as the robot she had talked to on the bridge of the ship.

"COMMUNICATION FROM GENERAL PEPPY."

Fox stood up and patted his stomach. "Ok, I suppose I'm all ready now. I'll take it up in the bridge." Without further words, the team followed Fox up out of the Galley towards the elevator up to the bridge. Slippy was tripping over his own mind, should he tell Fox and Falco what Skye had done? Then again, it DID work, so he supposed no good would come from it.

Once they reached the bridge, the screen winked on showing Peppy sitting in his regal chair on the bridge of the _Patriot_. Fox wondered weather he slept in that chair.

"Good work over Macbeth team! My special congratulations towards the ground team for their excellent work on that base, could have cost us the battle if it went wrong."

Fox sat in his comfy swiveling captains chair and crossed one leg over the other. "Sorry I yelled at you last night old timer, most of us were pretty tired after that fight, considering how late at night it was."

"No Problem Fox, we all were. Got a good few hours of shut-eye myself."

"So, you wanted to talk about the payment?"

Peppy stood up, and the camera view followed him down the Patriots hallway. There was no elevator on the ship, most of its decks could be reached through one long hallway that led up the entire ships "spine", and the bottom two decks were mostly dedicated to the quarters of lower ranked members of the crew and cargo space, all of which were accessed by stairwells located once every few rooms down the hallway. "We actually have a new toy that we would like your team to try; and if you like it enough, will substitute half your payment."

Fox cocked an eyebrow, so did Falco. "Half our payment? It had better be good."

The old hare grinned as he had his face turned back at the floating camera that was following him. "Don't you worry Fox, I know you'll love this."

He made a left and a door automatically slid open for him. It was a fighter docking bay, and what Fox saw made his jaw drop. Skye was actually the first to speak. "Holy shit, is that what I think it is?"

The fighter they saw was pristine, some kind of new prototype Arwing. The wings were thinner and tilted further back, but the most curious part of it was the cockpit design; Instead of it's basic triangular shape, it was split at the front of it, and the split ran all the way back to the front of the cockpit. The fighter looked incredibly sleek, and the engine on the back they saw as Peppy's floating camera circled was far more sophisticated looking then the Arwing II design; just by looking at it Skye and Slippy both knew this thing couldn't be any less than twice as fast as the Arwing II.

Peppy stopped circling the gorgeous piece of machinery. "Behold, ladies and gents, the first working prototype of the SFX Arwing Interceptor, in the works for ten years. Features twin laser cannons stock, with its smart bombs replaced by a double reactor drive that allows laser charge bombs to be charged in one quarter the time of normal; also the reactor allows for shield regeneration, making this the champion at dogfights. At last our scientists have figured out the specifics of the G-Diffuser drive -"

At this, everyone looked at Skye and Slippy who had both burst out laughing.

"Ahem.. continuing on; the G-Diffuser has been upgraded to allow for automatic adjustment of the diffusion output based on the vital signs of the pilot; no more manual adjustment of the diffuser when the pilot goes into a tight or dangerous maneuver."

Skye had stopped laughing after Slippy, wiping a tear from his eye. He hadn't laughed that hard in years, in fact, he couldn't recall the last time he had laughed at all.

Fox had stood from his seat as if he were to jump at the new fighter. "You're giving it to us?"

Peppy stepped to the side of the camera view. "She's all yours, Fox."

Fox frowned for the first time since seeing the new fighter, and turned to look at his team. "But who's gonna fly it?"

There were no volunteers. Falco was headstrong about his Skye Claw, Katt had just got her Cats Claw built for her, Skye would never fly a craft built by the idiots of his former engineering team, Slippy preferred the firepower of his Bullfrog, and Krystal simply liked her Cloud Runner, and could never bring herself to get rid of the fighter.

To everyone's surprise, Mina spoke up. "I can fly a fighter."

Everyone turned to look at the white furred cat. "I used to fly as a solo bounty hunter in one of the old Wolfen A's from the first Lylat War I bought off of Star Wolf for cheap. I heard the Arwings controls are pretty similar; do you guys think I could fly with you?"

Fox put his hand to his chin in thought. It would solve the problem of what to do with Mina., and he liked her so far. He needed to know a bit more about her first, though. "Ok, Mina, but before we accept you as a full member, I need to know how you roll in combat. How about a match, my Arwing II versus you in the new Interceptor?"

She frowned. "That's hardly a fair match, Mr.- I mean Fox. You're the best pilot in the system, and I'll be using a fighter i'm not familiar with."

"Don't worry about that, I'm fairly sure I'll win, I just want to see how you handle yourself." Skye frowned, Fox had never tested him this way, perhaps because he trusted Katt's judgment.

She walked up to him and put out her hand for a handshake. "It's a deal then, first to lock on?"

He took her hand and shook it. "Deal."

**10 Minutes later, Orbit around Macbeth.**

Mina sat in the cockpit of the gorgeous Arwing Interceptor. The controls were actually more similar to the Wolfen than she imagined. The joystick was nice and soft and handled smooth, and she didn't even feel a vibration when the ships systems came online, usually there was a short moment of violent shaking. Normally in fighter like the Arwing and the Wolfen, the HUD information like shields and bomb count was displayed on a screen along with a crosshair that was just inside the cockpit; she was delighted to see that the interior surface of the canopy glass WAS the HUD screen, the ships system information scrolled across the Arwings canopy like an old computer starting up; unimportant status information on the side screens, and the crosshair and primary system checks appearing in her frontal field of view. She fell in love with the fighter quickly.

Her and the Interceptor were in the Patriots docking bay, while Fox was getting ready at the same time in the Great Fox. As soon as they were to start, they would both get a communication from General Peppy to launch. The goal was to be the first to get a weapons lock on the other fighter. She looked at other switches she didn't recognize on her dashboard; luckily for her they were labeled. Throttle, Shield regenerator, an array of controls for the communicator, life support fine tuning, cargo-hold controls, hell; the thing even had a small game console built in with a music player for long trips between planets.

She was startled by her communicator crackling to life, the face of General Hare was in the bottom right corner of the canopy screen. "Fox and Mina, you are clear to launch. Good luck to both!"

She took the que, slamming on her pre-prepped throttle firing out of the docking bay at bullet speeds. She was confused at first; by the rate the ships in the area were moving past her screen, it would suggest she was going faster than anything she had ever seen before, but at the same time, there was no impact, no pushing to the seat from the G forces that should have been there. She was amazed as she regained control of the fighter.

She looped back around to the combat zone and checked her radar, Fox was just getting clear of the Great Fox. She might actually win this fight if she used this gorgeous piece of technology correctly.

Fox began looping around immediately to meet her, and started to get a lock. It dissipated immediately as the Interceptor shot past over his own Arwing. "Shit, that's fast!" He slammed on his yoke to bring the Arwing into a U-turn to pursue the bullet Peppy called a fighter.

He watched his radar instinctively as he pulled into the turn, Mina had already left the radars range. He looked up once he completed his turn, nothing. Looking down at the radar, he saw the fighter rapidly approaching him again on radar, but when he looked up, it was gone again. He was quickly getting frustrated, the fighter was moving quicker than he could check his radar for her location and compare it to what he saw. He decided to forsake the radar entirely.

Mina's radar was semi-transparent in her view, and the crosshair clearly showed through it. She watched as Fox's Arwing made its second U-Turn in an attempt to find her to get a lock, it was time for her to stop playing games now that she had gotten used to the controls.

She looped around far out of the Arwings attack range and to the fighters right side, but Fox had seen this and turned for a head to head with Mina. He got the lock-on started first; he had it, he had won- or so he thought. Mina hit the booster in her cockpit; THAT time she felt impact, and she almost slammed into the Patriot that was 5 kilometers behind Fox's Arwing before she could react and pull up off the boost. She needed to use the superior Interceptors maneuverability to get behind Fox to get the lock on first; or his experience would get the lock first.

Fox had already pulled into another U-Turn to give chase to the extremely quick fighter; but instead of giving Fox her broadside as she turned around, she took cover behind the Patriot as she made the most dangerous part of her turn. Coming out behind the Patriot she was shocked to see Fox waiting for her there, the lock on started as he slipped into position behind her.

1 second; she pulled left and right hoping the Arwing II wouldn't keep up to her sharp maneuvers, no such luck. Fox was a brilliant pilot, she couldn't shake him.

2 seconds; She pulled into a summersault, hoping it would be quicker than Fox's. She made a miscalculation, and Fox's slower summersault let him stay behind her and keep the lock charging.

3 seconds, her cockpit turned red with a lock-on confirmation. It was over, Fox had won. Her communicator buzzed to life. "Welcome to the team, Mina."

_((Authors Note: Crazy thing, this was only HALF of what was left of my plans for Chapter 5, I had no idea they would stretch out this much! There's not much left to it, so I should be able to get the rest of chapter 5 jammed into my plans for what was GOING to be chapter 6, but will now be chapter 7. This may turn out to be far longer than I planned after all. I hope you enjoyed this one, I loved writing it even more than 5. Sorry this took so long btw, I'm getting to work on 7 right away!))_


	8. Chapter 7: Encounter

**Chapter 7**

**Encounter**

**August 2nd**

**1:12 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Great Fox Docking Bay**

The team was all waiting for Fox in his Arwing II and Mina in her new Arwing Interceptor in the docking bay of the Great Fox. Their duel had been rather short, but furious, and Mina had more than proven herself in combat. The team almost ignored Fox's entry, because when the Interceptor drifted into the bay, all heads were turned at the sparkling fighter. Fox was the first to leap out of his cockpit once his Arwing had gone quiet, and walked to the rest of the team and watched the Interceptor come down.

When it set down, Skye and Slippy both began to circle the fighter, looking at every detail and new feature. The canopy of the fighter slid forwards to open instead of the swiveling open design of it's predecessors. Mina slid out of the cockpit and onto the deck floor, Fox walked up to her through Katt, Krystal and Falco, putting out his hand.

"Congratulations Mina, you're quite the pilot."

She took his hand and shook it once more. "I would have felt better if I won, that is a really nice fighter."

"And she's all yours as long as you're with the team, I'll let you buy it off me any time you want with mission payments, shouldn't take too long if you wanna do that." He let go of her hand.

She pointed at Skye and Slippy who were still goggling at the fighter. "Slippy and Skye are the mechanics right? I just wanna see about making some fine tune adjustments."

He nodded. "Yup, I'm sure they'll help you out with that. If you want a tour of the ship, just ask any of us. In the meantime, I'm gonna go deal with the payments from the last mission, moving the credits to the proper accounts and whatnot."

She smiled. "Sure." and walked over to the Interceptor where the mechanics were looking under panels and inspecting parts of the ship more closely.

Slippy still looked utterly delighted, but it appeared that Skye had already found a problem; by the look on the snow leopards face, it was a detrimental one. "What's wrong, Skye? You look like you found a bomb wired to this thing."

He was looking at the laser cannons of the ship, which were tightly grouped together in the split at the center of the cockpit. His teeth were gritted together. "Perhaps I did. Come take a look at this..." Still looking at the cannons, he gestured for her to approach, and she did.

She didn't know much about mechanics, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong with them. Skye seemed to think otherwise. "Look at how the idiots packed these in. With the dual fusion core working at high fire rates, this thing will overheat no matter what kind of cooling system is in it; and they're right in front of the cockpit! It's a good thing this thing hasn't been tested in combat yet, because the laser cannons would fry the pilot to a crisp."

Mina understood, now that he explained it, it seemed painfully obvious. "What can we do about it?"

He took a step back from the front of the fighter and looked at the wings. "We take a leaf out of the Assassins design, were going to have to move the cannons under the wings, to give them more space. That should also give us enough room to install a smart bomb launcher, might only be able to fit one charge though."

She grabbed his shoulder. "Wait a minute, what if we need these soon? We can't just go ripping it apart like that."

He took another look at the offending cannons, and back at the wings. "Two days, perhaps less with Slippy's help. This is something I can do, and we should be able to do it before the next mission."

Skye's attitude towards the project had peaked Minas interest. "Can I help? At least I would get more familiar with my fighter that way." He looked at her, and almost hesitated. "Of course, it never hurts to learn."

Slippy walked around the fighter and joined them. "Other than the cannons, this thing seems in perfect shape! I've never seen anything like it." Skye turned around to walk to the crate in the corner of the bay he kept all sorts of tools for Arwing repairs. "Alright, lets get started."

The three got to work on the fighter. Skye had directed most of the movements; Mina and Slippy more or less carried out his instructions. He was dealing with an almost completely new fighter, but enough was similar to guess where most things should go. The longest part of the job was leading the power and computer lines from the new cannon positions, through the wings, and back into the cockpit; they had to remove the entire bottom cover of the craft to access the nooks they needed to.

Four hours into the work, as Skye was rewiring the port side gun, Mina was watching carefully; she knew this was something she would probably have to know some day. All was going well, Skye seemed to know where everything went with relative ease, until he stopped.

"Something wrong Skye?"

He was looking down at the ground. "Just a bit distracted, that's all." She kneeled down beside him. "We can take a break you know, we've been at it for a few hours." He looked at her as she said this. "I guess so."

Skye stood up and looked over the fighter at Slippy who was rewiring the laser cannon on his side as well. "Hey Slippy, me and Mina are going to take a break, if you would like to join us."

The frog stopped what he was doing and looked over to Skye. "Nah, I might as well finish this up before I stop, we're almost done."

Without any more words, Skye headed to the back corner of the docking bay where the team had set up a small lounge with spare furniture over the weeks. There was a couple old couches and tables, along with a mini cooler that Fox had instructed ROB to always keep stocked a variety of quick refreshments.

Mina followed him over to the lounge area and they sat down, taking separate couches. When Skye sat he stretched his back causing it to pop and crack several times, and instead of cringing like he expected, Mina proceeded to do the same; with almost every joint he could think of. Knuckles, wrists, elbows, back, neck, hell even her toes sounded like they cracked. She sighed in relaxation; "I needed that, my bones feel like they stiffen up if I don't do it."

Without a reply, Skye reached over to the mini cooler that was on his left and pulled out the bottle of vodka he kept stashed there, not bothering to get a glass for himself, he just twisted off the cap and set it on top the cooler, taking a deep and long swig. With his free hand he wiped off his chin.

Mina let her curiosity get the better of her, Skye had mentioned earlier that day that she looked like someone he knew. "So, who was it that I look like?"

He groaned with far more emphasis then he would usually allow in his stiff state, but she imagined the sudden looseness was due to the vodka. "My sister, you look just like my sister."

She smirked, to her it was an amusing coincidence, she had no idea the territory she was treading into. "Oh? What is she up to these days?"

He hesitated, taking another swig of the vodka. She was surprised to see him like this, normally he was so calm and collected, drinking like that seemed so much out of character. "Lying in a makeshift box 6 feet under a tree at the old family farm on Katina."

He said it surprisingly quiet, she could have swore he was close to shedding the first tear she had seen out of him. He twisted the cap back on the alcohol and put it back in the mini fridge, leaning his head back on the back of the couch, looking upwards at the chained up Bluemarine above them.

Mina, finally having realized the minefield she had stumbled into, looked to her feet in shame. "I'm sorry..."

Skye looked away from her. "Not your fault." With this he stood up back to the Arwing, it had only been a couple minutes break, but they were almost finished the job at hand anyway. Mina followed him without a word, suddenly feeling ashamed to walk in the leopards wake.

Slippy had left already when they got back to the Interceptor, the other cannon was in place, and the new Smart Bomb launcher was already installed. Mina and Skye worked in silence as they finished work on the starboard laser cannon. They finished quickly, and the two stood in front of the glorious fighter.

Skye finally broke the silence between the two. "So, what should we name it?"

Mina looked puzzled. "Name it? You guys name your ships?"

He smirked at her. "I had thought the tradition was ridiculous at first as well, but when you spend so much time with the fighters, you grow attached to them. Especially when they are so heavily customized."

Mina looked back at the Interceptor and smiled after a few silent moments of thought. "...The Ranger, what do you think about that?"

He turned his back to the craft, and Mina started to follow him as well. "The Ranger it is." He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. "We actually finished that rather quickly now that I think about it."

**5 Minutes Later**

**The Bridge of the Great Fox II**

It had been 4 hours since Fox's duel with Mina. Peppy's fleet had split up and started preparing for the last push to surround Venom; one of his fleets went to Zoness and then would go to Sector Z afterwards and clean out any Venom ships that escaped the Cornerians wrath, and another group cleaned up straggling forces behind the Cornerian line, scout ships were eagerly searching for development centers for bio weapons similar to the ones used in the Lylat War due to the use of one on Aquas. Peppy and his personal support group stayed in orbit around Macbeth, waiting for any possible counter attack, but the planetary turret uplink was already under repairs, and would tear apart any attacking fleets. Fox started to wonder why the turrets didn't go active when Venom attacked Macbeth in the first place.

He was sitting in his captains chair taking the view of the dark-green planet in with a mug of coffee in his hands. Krystal was with him, in one of the officer seats that were lined up behind the Captains chair. There were three, originally that was all that was needed for the 4 members of Star Fox, and he had been considering having extra installed for the 3 new members.

"I wonder what that ape Dash must be thinking right now." Fox said, taking a sip out of his mug.

Krystal's voice had an unnaturally cruel tone to it, the first of true hatred he had heard from her since he found her during her time with Star Wolf. "I hope the bastard is crying right now, we smashed all of the kids toys, wonder who he's going to cry to?"

Fox barred his fangs. "It better not be his grandfather he's crying to. If Skye's theory is right, and I have a bad feeling that it is, he might have found a way to bring himself back again."

Krystal seemed to relax. "But let's not worry about that now Fox, the time will come when it comes. For now we can just wait for the next assignment in relative peace."

She stood from her seat and walked up behind him.

Fox was yet to relax however. "I just can't believe this is happening, just when I thought that Venom was done pestering us. Why can't it be some kind of insignificant alien invader like the Anglars again? There was barely any casualties from that little week long war their attack was so pathetic. This is a whole different-... Ohhhhh...." his sentence was interrupted by Krystal putting her paws on his traps and giving them an incredibly skilled massage. She had always had a gift for it for some reason, he guessed that she was able to detect what felt good to him through her telepathy. The feeling made him drop his empty mug, but it was plastic so it didn't shatter on the floor thankfully enough.

The massage made him relax almost instantly, and for a minute he just laid there and accepted it with kind thanks through his thoughts, which she obviously detected because she kissed him on the forehead before continuing.

They were interrupted however by the screen lighting up and shooting a video feed of Peppy on the bridge of the Patriot, Krystal shot her hands away from Fox's shoulders quickly to avoid an awkward scene. Fox shot a betrayed look at where ROB was usually standing, but he remembered that ROB was in the armory recharging his power supply.

Peppy had his all business face on. "Fox, I hope I'm not intruding."

Fox looked annoyed, but not any worse than that. "It's alright, you got another assignment for us already?"

Peppy frowned. "Unfortunately I do, and it's important. One of our scout ships sent to the orbit of Sol found something extremely disturbing; a research facility was there. We have no idea how it got there so quickly, but what we know is that it is definitely Venom design."

Fox took a moment before listening to more to press a button on the armrest of his chair that would sent a PA message to the rest of the crew. "Everyone report to the bridge, new assignment." He let go of the button and looked back at Peppy.

The old hare continued. "Now, here is the strange thing. Initial scans indicate that the facility was constructed about 17 years ago, that was during the first Lylat War."

Fox looked thoughtful. "A research facility? Do you think it might be where they developed the Sol bio weapon?"

"It's a possibility, but we can't be sure. What we do know is that there is current-age Venomian ships surrounding the station, so it must be in use now. If it is being used for the development of a new bio-weapon, we need to destroy it before it can be deployed behind our lines where we won't be able to respond quickly enough."

The pieces of the operation fell into Fox's mind like a 12 piece jigsaw puzzle. Go to Sol, find the station, blow it up along with all Venomian units in the area. Simple.

As he ran this thought through, the large doors of the bridge hissed open and members of the team started to walk in. It almost disturbed him how big the team was getting; Skye, Mina and Slippy came in together and took seats, while Krystal remained standing beside Fox. Falco and Katt wandered in about 30 seconds later, both looked rather ragged. "_Three guesses what they were doing" _Fox thought to himself. Krystal giggled at him but didn't answer.

Peppy's eyes were scanning the group. "Well, now that everyone is here, I'll send you the coordinates of the station and all the specs of surrounding ships I can give you."

"I'd appreciate it, Peppy. Great Fox out."

When he said this, the screen deactivated, and Fox swiveled his captains chair around to face his crew. "Alright guys, here's the assignment. Peppy's boys just found a research station around Sol, and most of us think it's the same one that developed the bio weapon that was sent there during the Lylat War. We don't know how it stayed undetected, but what we do know is that it's detected now and surrounded in Venomian ships that weren't caught in Peppy's cleanup fleet. Our jobs to fly in, and blow up everything. Any questions?"

Katt spoke up. "I guess we can expect capital ship resistance, then?"

The vulpine nodded. "Probably, but if there was any actually dangerously large ships they would have either been recalled for the battle at Macbeth, or we would have found them way earlier, so that's most likely not going to be a problem." He paused. "Any more questions? No? Good." He stood up from the captains chair. "ROB, set a course for close orbit with Sol."

The team was in no rush, they had about a half hour to prepare. Walking down the hall, Fox ran through things they would probably need to do. "Do you guys think we might have to board that thing?"

Falco shrugged. "Why? We can always just blow it up and be done with it."

Skye looked thoughtful; "On the other hand, it's databanks may contain locations of other research bases, not to mention communication logs. It could make cleaning up Lylat go quite a bit quicker if we know more about enemy movements and hidden bases."

Fox nodded. "Makes perfect sense to me. We're going to need at least three going in there, and one of them needs hacking experience. Probably going to need heavy weapons as well for any bio weapons in development."

Slippy spoke up. "Either me or Skye can do the hacking part, Falco and you are the best with heavy weaponry..."

Fox took a moment to think. "Slippy is more experienced with bio chemistry, so he might be better suited to any data relevant to the bio weapons, and Falco can go in with a rocket launcher I suppose, wouldn't hurt for me to go as well. Any volunteers for one more?" he walked backwards facing the group looking at them.

Krystal raised her hand without hesitation. "I should go, my telepathy is great for detecting enemies in close quarters combat."

Fox turned frontwards again. "Sounds like a plan. The rest of you will be keeping space clear while we work, but we won't be boarding it until the orbit is cleared of enemy capital ships either way, so it shouldn't be much of a problem."

Skye looked worried however, and Fox noticed as he was turning around. "What's up, Skye?"

The leopard was looking down somewhat. "This looks too easy, think it may be a trap?"

The vulpine laughed. "So what if it is? We'll still kick ass."

**Ten Minutes Later**

**Docking Bay**

The team were all in their Arwings running pre-flight checklists. Fox had brought a spread blaster with him, which was a larger modified blaster that spread its fire similar to a standard shotgun, but with the energy recharging capability of a blaster Its barrel was widened, and the charge display was removed off of the top of the weapon.. He also had a smaller holdout blaster pistol with him just incase. He was wearing a simple flak vest and blue jeans.

Falco brought a standard blaster, and had a rocket launcher stored in the Sky Claw's cargo bay. He was wearing a black leather jacket over a white T-Shirt, with matching black jeans.

Slippy wore his normal mechanics uniform, which he had modified himself to shape shift when his body did. Slippy's family had a strange trait that allowed his body to simply semi-liquefy instead of taking structural damage making him almost invincible, but it always left his clothes ruined afterwards, he designed his brown jumpsuit to mold with him. He kept a blaster with him, he guessed it was all he would need because he would busy with any computers they came across.

Krystal was wearing her same old sexy armor, she wore it so often due to the customizations that Slippy had added to it; it had a portable shield generator, and was both physically tough and flexible, not to mention it fit her very well. For weapons, the blue Vixen didn't pack light. On top of her basic blaster, she had her staff, and a Gatling gun. Fox was surprised when she decided to bring the devastating weapon along, but didn't say anything because she looked so bad ass with it.

Mina freshly cleaned her suit she hadn't got the chance to get replacements for yet. Skye was wearing his basic black T-shirt and matching jeans, and Katt was in a red sweater with blue jeans. They were going to be in their fighters the whole time, so they saw no reason to pack weapons or any other gear.

Slippy cracked in on the comm channel as he finished his start up checklist. "So, Mina, how's the Interceptor treating you?"

She was giddy every time she activated the craft now. "Can't even hear her when she turns on, Slippy. It's fabulous. Me and Skye decided to call her the Ranger."

ROB's robotic voice filled the ears of all the pilots. "REACHING SOL ORBIT T-MINUS ONE MINUTE, OPENING DOCKING BAY DOORS."

The Arwings, one by one, began to hover their way to the launch strip that lead out of the huge bay's doors. It was only wide enough for four fighters, so Fox Krystal Slippy and Falco were in front, with Katt Skye and Mina behind them. Their rear thrusters lit up in preparation waiting for the ship to come to a stop.

As soon as Sol was closely visible, the Arwings canopies all automatically adjusted to the brightness of the superheated planet and activated echolocation vision to sharpen images that were dulled out by the lights, the pilots could still see almost perfectly fine. They launched one at a time, boosting out of the bay. Mina didn't use her boost however to avoid shooting ahead of the other Arwings, as much as she was tempted to give the fighter a workout.

In orbit of the red hot planet was a huge ring shaped structure with beams extending to a center sphere. Keeping pace in orbit with it was three cruiser-sized ships, none of which as big as the Great Fox. The three ships turned to face the Great Fox as they scrambled into position to fight it. Fighters shot out of the ships docking bays to try their hand at the legendary Star Fox team. Slippy came over the comm. "Enemy strength analyzed, three squadrons of twelve Invader IV fighters each, three Venomian Light Cruisers, the station isn't armed."

Fox put on his battle face. "Alright, break and take it to 'em! Pump smart bombs into their cruisers whenever you get a clear line of fire!"

With a roll from each, the 7 fighters broke off from each other in their own directions. The cloud of inbound fighters scrambled to intercept each of them, but were unfocused.

The ones that chased after Mina were baffled and thrown off when Mina hit the boost and completely vanished out of their view. She smirked as she turned the fighter around with a neck-breaking U-Turn which the G-Diffuser took with ease. She slammed on the thrust once she was facing her pursuers, and began to charge up her laser bombs. She shot her eyes wide open as they finished charging only a half of a second after she pressed down the trigger on her yoke; the canopy screen read a good lock on the lead oncoming fighter. She let the bomb loose and it shot its way towards its target. Without hesitating, she charged up and fired 3 more, making sure to fire enough to eradicate all of the incoming hostiles.

She hit the boost after she fired her three bombs and _out ran _them, shooting through the enemy group before her bombs hit their targets. The enemies tried to scramble to try to chase the fighter that had just slipped through their jaws, but before they could even begin to turn around, the laser bombs came upon them; with 4 bright explosions, the fighters were erased. "Hell yes, 6 down. 26 fighters remaining, guys."

Fox, Krystal, Falco and Slippy kept a very wide berth from each other as they took different paths towards the closest cruiser. Fox smirked. "Nice shooting, keep it up."

As he said this, a shield trio of fighters shot towards him pouring red lasers on his Arwing, Doing a quick barrel roll to deflect the lasers, he opened up with a spray of his own, getting an easy three kills as the green twin blasters plowed through his assailants.

"Down to 23."

Skye and Katt, having gone in similar direction, were keeping a close eye on each other as a full 12 fighter squadron broke off to chase the new comers to the team. Skye slowed down behind Katt. "I'm going to bait them in and give you a clear shot."

Katt broke off quickly enough not to attract any of the pursuers to herself. "Don't get shot up before I get there, Skye."

He checked his radar, the 12 fighters were hot on the Assassins tail. "Don't miss."

He led them on a chase towards the three cruisers. Just as he had calculated, the cruisers reached the range to fire on the Great Fox just in time for him to dive towards them. The cannons on the three ships opened up on the significantly larger Great Fox, and it returned fire with its massive disruptor cannons. The battle had just heated up far more with thick laser beams filling up the space between the capital ships. Skye hoped to scare the squad trailing him to give him a better lead on them before Katt came in. His predictions continued to serve him well as the fighters grouped together tightly in the cruisers blind spot to avoid being vapourized. "If you're going to do it, now's the time."

On que, the Cats Claw shot into view perpendicular to the Assassin, and fired a smart bomb right at his position. Skye darted out of the way, but the unfortunate fighters continued right towards him not noticing the incoming explosive amongst the capital ship laser fire; and when they began to break off, it was far too late. The explosion snagged the could of fighters like a fishing net, and all that was left after the explosion was debris for the lasers to plow through effortlessly. "Awwe yeah! 12 kills for Katt!"

Skye spotted a fighter just outside the debris field as he passed it again. "Eleven. One survivor, I got him." He hit the boost and the nimble Assassin caught up to the escaping Invader IV. The disc shaped craft bobbed left and right as Skye's lock on progressed, and after two seconds his cockpit sounded a clean lock. He let go of the trigger, and watched as the green pulse collided with the hopeless victim. "1 for me. 11 fighters remaining."

"Correction, 8." Falco said as he finished stitching 3 fighters that broke off to pursue the larger Bullfrog that Slippy was flying.

As he said this, the closest cruiser to the Great Fox buckled as its polygon-linked shields shattered like glass under the fire from the larger ship, and exploded. Fox, Krystal, Slippy and Falco booted out of the zone just in time to home in on the rear ship, the Great Fox would handle the second one.

As they approached the last cruiser, the 11 remaining fighters scattered to try to bring down the 4 Arwings that were going to blow away their last hope at survival. Katt, Skye and Mina stuck by the Great Fox incase they decided to come back around.

Fox watched his radar as 11 red blips caught up to the 4 Arwings. "Tighten up formation you three, lets lead em on."

The four Arwings began to fly closer together on their ballistic flight towards the far cruiser. As their pursuers closed in, Krystal took the initiative; she pulled into a slow summersault putting her behind the 11 fighters. Two or three tried the same maneuver. "I got them!"

Instead of starting a lock, she sprayed lasers before they could escape her grasp. They tore through fighters mercilessly, leaving only 4 left when the survivors broke off. Now there was 6 left, two behind Krystal, and 4 scattering randomly. "That's 5 down, 6 to go." She checked her radar. "Two more on my tail!"

"Not anymore". She heard the deep voice of Skye as the two dots flickered off of her radar, Skye had smoked them both with a well placed laser bomb.

"Thanks for your help, Skye."

"No problem, go blow up that ship so we can relax."

"Not yet, I think we have a word to say about that first."

The last voice most of the team members knew right off of the bat. The low growling bass of Wolf O'Donnell, arch nemesis to Star Fox. Fox barked over his comm. "You! Just when we least wanted to see you!"

The old lupine laughed at them. "That's what we're paid for, pup. Now shut up and lets fight! Wolf Squadron, move out!"

Fox thought for a moment. His team was called Star Wolf, not Wolf Squadron. He checked his radar. _Twelve _Wolfen bogies approached the Arwings.

Wolf smiled at what he saw. "We got you out numbered twelve to four McCloud, this time you're not getting out of here alive."

A slithering lizard voice crackled in. "Wolf, there is seven of them, they seem to have picked up a couple of extra rats since we met last."

The deep, soft voice of the hopeless romantic Panther came in next. "No matter, they shall be eliminated all the same."

Wolf's Red Fang, Panther's Black Rose, and Leon's Rainbow Delta, followed by 9 other standard Wolfens, boosted into the battle, just having dropped out of hyperspace.

Leon took the first move, moving in to chase one of Star Fox's newcomers; unfortunately for him, it was Mina. As he moved into position behind her, the slow craft was out maneuvered quickly when the Ranger pulled into a dizzying U-Turn. "What the heck was that?"

Mina smirked a predators smile. "Never walk into a situation you do not know everything about." She pulled away, and did another U-Turn back towards Leon before he had finished making his first turn around to face her.

"Do not recite the Assassins law to me! I have lived by them for 25 years!"

"You would have thought you'd have learned them...." Mina shot towards Leon and used her sole Smart Bomb, and Leon struggled to pull away from the blast. he took a nasty hit, having only just barely escaped the explosion. A smoke trail emitted from his rear thrust engine as he shot away from the blast.

Before Leon could recollect his senses, the Ranger had been on him again. "What are you!?" he hissed.

She ignored that question, she was sick of playing with this idiot. As the painfully slow fighter tried to U-turn towards her, the limp in his engines making it even more difficult, Mina sprayed the Rainbow Delta with twin lasers, turning the fighter into a scorching wreck.

Wolf was about to get into a head lock with Fox, when he saw Leon's blip on his radar wink out. "Powalski? What the hell? Answer me you slithering twat!"

Fox laughed. "Looks like old green-gills just got pulverized."

As he said this, some of the subordinate Wolfens came into the engagement, and three decided to pick on Fox. Wolf used this window to take a fly-by past his dilapidated team mate. "Whoever did this, I will burn down myself!" He barked.

Mina put on a predatory smile. "That would be me old man, wanna be next?"

The sound she heard from the Red Fang was a piercing cry of bloody rage. He had known Leon for the better part of 30 years, and now he was most likely dead. "I'll tear that head off and eat it you worthless bitch!"

Mina was done exchanging with the pirate, she would handle Wolf the same way she had Leon. Just as she thought this, the Black Rose came in to support Wolf as well. "We shall avenge Powalski together."

Mina gritted her teeth, two experienced pilots vs. her in the interceptor. She didn't like the odds anymore. In an attempt to strafe them she shot by, but these two were a lot quicker with the yoke, and both pulled into a U-Turn before she even passed them, they stayed on her tail with far more ease than the lizard.

Three Wolfens danced around Fox in an attempt to bring the master pilot to his knees, but Fox was effortlessly dodging their blows. The Wolfen pilots were only barely getting out of his target locks in time. Fox cursed his slow reflexes today, but remembered that these were Wolfens, not the pathetic Invader class fighters he was fighting earlier.

He heard Mina's cry over the comm. "Wolf and Panther are on my tail, can't shake them!"

Fox gritted his teeth. "Anyone wanna take care of these guys?!"

Slippy was the first to be heard. "Got two of my own Fox, my hands are full!"

Krystal was next. "Inbound, Mina, hold on!"

Katt said with a tone of impatience. "Ugh, he's a slippery son of a bitch! Can't get a lock! Hands are full Mina, sorry sugar."

Falco changed course towards Fox. "I can take your admirers, go help the new girl will you?"

As Falco said this he shot towards the three Wolfens getting three locks on with the multi-lock cannon. The locks were weak but all hit their targets, knocking around Fox's assailants enough to make them change targets to the incoming threat that was the Sky Claw.

Fox took the chance and rocketed towards Mina's position behind Skye and Krystal. On their way there, an ambitious Wolfen came at Fox head on, only to meet Fox's lock on before he could realize his mistake. The green laser bomb blew the oncoming Wolfen to pieces, and Fox flew through nothing but superheated debris, which harmlessly pinged off of his shields. "One Wolfen down..."

Falco's voice buzzed in. "Two!" and Katt buzzed in immediately after. "Three!!!"

As Fox Krystal and Skye shot in to help Mina, they heard a feral roar emit from the Red Fang again. "Not today, Fox! I have you this time!"

Wolf's attitude got the better of him, and he and Panther broke off from Mina to go after Fox and Krystal respectively in a head to head. They broke off just in time, because it threw off Skye's lock on he had been setting up for.

Mina limped out of the scene back to the Great Fox with multiple laser scores on the Rangers hull. "I'm sorry everyone, I took too many hits back there, I need to pull out."

Wolf took this as his chance. "Not if I have anything to say about it!" He pulled away from his impending head to head with Fox and made chase after Mina, who was limping at half thrust. Fox kept on Wolf's tail.

Krystal and Panther came to their head to head with ferocity, both firing and dodging the others lasers expertly. When they passed each other, each began to make a U-Turn to decide who would play the hunter first. Krystal got the initiative, and looped onto Panthers tail. "Sorry Panther, but no mercy today."

He growled seductively, which made both Fox and Krystal cringe in their Arwings. "So much ferocity from one so gorgeous-" he was interrupted by Fox. "One more word hitting on Krystal, Panther, I dare you."

As Wolf caught up to Mina, he suddenly shot his eyes open as he read two locks start on his fighter. One from Fox behind him, and one from Skye who just came from his left side. He broke off with a barrel roll in an attempt to recover from the fatal mistake he just made. Fox's bolt was reflected, and Skye's bolt missed completely as Wolf slammed on the ships brakes, causing it to over shoot. Both Fox and Skye cursed as they flew right past him.

Wolf took tail behind Fox and started to get a lock right away. Fox started thinking fast, and saw Krystal chasing Panther in his direction. He switched to team only communications on his comm board. "Krystal, lead Panther my way and I'll get him, and you get Wolf!"

"Got it, Fox, I'll scare him your way."

Fox made his way for Panther head on, hoping the cat wouldn't notice his furious approach. Wolf's lock on had broken a couple of times, but it had started again, and if he was going to do anything about it, he had to do it now.

As Panther came into range, Krystal broke off his tail and over shot Fox towards Wolf. Fox plowed lasers into the Black Rose, causing one of its wings to come right off and make it spin helplessly out into space. Wolf tried to pull off, but it was too late, Krystal put lasers on his left side, knocking the Red Fang around helplessly.

Wolf shot his hands away from his yoke for a moment as sparks shot up at him, they stopped and he took a grip of his fighter again. Panther pulled up beside him and the two pulled away from the fight. "You're getting better pup, but don't expect such luck the next time we meet. Any other Wolf Squadron mates alive, form up on me, we're getting out of here."

He was shocked to only see two Wolfens break off to join him, and neither of them was Leon. Wolf suspected the worst, and jumped to warp without another word. Panther and the two mercenaries trailing behind him...

One more Wolfen tried to catch up with the four Wolfens as they jumped out, but a vengeful (and damaged) Slippy chased it down and coated it with plasma bolts. As he did this, the team watched as the Great Fox's lasers finally spelt the doom of the last cruiser, the disruptor fire shattering the shields of the ship and plowing into its bow. The lifeless wreck drifted slowly into the atmosphere of Solar, where it would make it's final decent to nothingness.

"That could have gone a lot better." Fox said over the communicator.

"Time to take care of that station." Krystal said, changing her course to dock with it.

Fox followed her in. "Alright, Falco and Slippy come with us. Skye and Katt, stay in orbit of the station and make sure no reinforcements can bug us, we could be anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour."

Skye growled through the channel. "Affirmative."

The voice had sounded creepy, almost blood thirsty. Fox wondered what was bugging him so much. He shook off the notion as the four Arwings made their way down to the docking port of the research station.

**A couple minutes later...**

**3:28 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Solar Research Station Docking Bay**

The Arwings docked with little problems, the station almost appeared deserted. No guards, no scientists running about, the whole situation seemed unsettlingly eerie.

Fox, Krystal and Slippy were already armed and walking to the back of the massive (and empty, other than a few crates and the Arwings) chamber to continue deeper into the complex. Falco pulled his rocket launcher out of the cargo bay of the Sky Claw and slung it over his shoulder with a leather sling he had attached to it before they left the Great Fox. He pulled out his blaster and followed the rest of the team.

Fox's eyes were scanning the room cautiously down the iron sights of his weapon, and the butt of his spread blaster was to his shoulder. "Krystal, you getting anything?"

With one hand carrying her Gatling gun and the other pressing her index finger to her temple, she said; "Somehow, I don't know how, but there's interference. I can't feel anyone, not even you guys."

Fox gritted his teeth. "The bastard figured out how to block your telepathy, great. Definitely a trap." He cursed not having listened to Skye, who originally theorized it was a trap. "Stay sharp, shoot it if it moves."

Slippy looked extremely nervous, and his short stubby frame needed to hold the basic blaster in two hands as though it were a rifle. Krystal had both hands on her Gatling gun, and her eyes were very focused. It unsettled her not being able to detect incoming enemies, and her eyes were frantic scanning the area around them constantly. Falco on the other hand looked relaxed, it was hard to feel threatened when you were walking around with a gun almost as big as you are.

The halls were poorly lit, only by the red of emergency lights sometimes accompanied by sparks from torn wires in the ceiling. Fox was beginning to think something had actually gone seriously wrong here instead of setting up a trap.

These thoughts were bolstered further when they heard a yelp from Slippy as he tripped over something. Fox kneeled down to him right away. "You okay?"

Slippy was looking at what he tripped on with a mortified stare, and when Fox looked at what he was, his jaw dropped. It was a body, soaked in more blood then he appeared able to bleed. It was a squirrel in a once - white lab coat. His right arm was torn off, and his legs were crushed nearly flat. The look on the victims face was one of pure terror, and it would be so for eternity afterwards.

Falco was the first to speak. "Holy fucking shit." His jaw may have hit his lap.

The smell of the body dawned on them, causing Krystal to cover her nose with her free hand. They continued on. Slippy still looked mortified. "If you guys don't have a bad feeling about this after seeing that, I don't know what will give you one!" His voice was shaking, the toad was obviously in fear.

"We need to focus." Fox said. "We need to find a working terminal in this place and extract as much data as we can, and figure out why we never found it before."

They carried down the dark hall, finding more mutilated corpses as they went. Eventually the hall came to a dead end except for a sealed door, which Slippy got to work on immediately from a terminal that was built into the wall beside it. After a short couple of minutes the door slid open for them.

The room was dark, but from the feeling of it they could guess it was immense. Slippy kept working on the terminal to see if he could get lights in the room, while the other three slowly crept in. "Almost got it..." A couple seconds later, the lights came on in the room.

They were amazed to discover the main spherical part of the station they had seen from orbit was in fact one massive room, and they were in it. Bodies were strewn about the floor, and terminals were laid about in a circle around a massive centerpiece, which their eyes focused slowly on from the sudden addition of light. One they could see properly, all four of their jaws dropped at what they saw.

The entire center of the room was row upon row of storage tanks, all of which contained an identical looking creature. Each was about 7 feet tall, and had machinery built into their arms that they could only assume were guns. Some of the tanks were already broken open, but not many.

To their shock, a sudden loud siren noise went off for about a half of a second causing all four pilots to nearly jump out of their skin. After that, all of the doors in the room sealed shut. Fox gritted his teeth and barked out loud. "God damn it, it WAS a trap!"

Slippy was kneeling down and whimpering, his capacity for fear had almost completely broken him. Krystal's eyes were wide open, darting around rapidly, she was obviously scared shitless as well. Falco on the other hand, was wearing a smirk, and his large red rocket launcher was mounted on his shoulder as he slowly rotated his aim around the room, seeking his first victim of the night.

All four fell dead silent as soon as the room did, and the only sound that broke it was what sounded like foot steps. Fox snapped into action. "Ok fuck it, we're getting out of here! Slippy, get on that terminal and get these doors open, and download as much data as you can. Falco and Krystal, eyes open and weapons primed!"

They formed a triangle formation around Slippy. Falco and Krystal's faces had both gone to those communicating all business mentalities. Fox's spread blaster was up and ready, and he made sure to check to double check the charge, and it read full.

The first attack of the fight came swiftly, one of the brown-skinned mutants jumped out of a vent in the roof of the massive room all the way down to the floor in front of Krystal with a snarl, but before it could raise one of it's boxy arm cannons, Krystal had spooled up her Gatling gun, and automatic fire death tore the creature apart.

The loud emission of the Gatling gun agitated their attackers even more, as 3 more crawled out of various vents and loose floor tiles throughout the room. One jumped out of the now-smashed floor right in front of Fox, but excellent timing with the Spread blaster turned the mutant's disgusting face into a mass of char and blood, it's lifeless corpse was thrown away from Fox.

Fox gritted his teeth. "Hurry up, Slip!!!"

The frog was panicky and his arms were shaking. "I'm trying I'm trying!!! I've started to download the database and it'll keep going even after we leave, just working on that damn door but it's locked me out with multiple layers of security..."

As Slippy explained, Falco launched off his first rocket. A fast running mutant was dashing towards them wildly, ignoring the fact it had guns build into it's arms. The rocket plowed into the creature, and amongst the flame of the explosion, were brown limbs and a shower of green blood.

The night wasn't over, however. Fox's terror had become complete when he started to see storage tanks in the center of the room start to crack. "Oh fuck! We're out of time! Falco, blow that damn door open before we join the rest of the bodies!"

Slippy yelled at him. "Wait damn it! I almost have it and it may seal permanently if the explosive doesn't bash through it!"

Instead of on the door, Falco chose to listen to Slippy and fired a rocket at a mutant that was about to raise it's weapon at them. "You better be right Slippy!"

Krystal faced her Gatling gun towards the shattering storage tanks, and disoriented mutants were met with the loud chattering of the massive weapon as its rounds shredded newly hatched bio weapons. Krystal yelled aloud as the weapon tore through its victims.

As she was letting loose, another sneaky one popped up right beside Krystal, only to have Fox's spread blaster pointed right at it. "Krystal, duck!" She stopped firing and hit the deck just in time for the mutant to swing its arm at where her head once was, and Fox shattered it's hopes further with a spread round in it's face.

Before things got any more intense, Slippy finally got the door to the facility to yield. It snapped open with a hiss, and Fox barked aloud. "To the Arwings! Move!!!"

Falco fired off his last rocket at three incoming mutants, and watched in glee as they combusted. Before they ran out the door he threw the launcher with all of his strength at one coming from their left, and darted out the door, followed closely by Krystal. Slippy dashed in next, and Fox fired a few shots back through the door before following them out.

They ran as quickly as they could through the hall. Slippy desperately tried to remember

which hallway they needed to turn on for the hangar bay. As they ran, a mutant popped it's head out of a vent above them with it's gun pointed at Fox. With a loud bang, it went off, but Fox had dove to the side just a moment too late, and the abnormally large blaster charge tore into his left leg, fortunately the burn sealed the wound.

With a yelp, he pointed his spread blaster with one hand and blew the mutants face off. Krystal screamed. "Fox!" running back for him, but Falco stopped her. "You two get the fuck out of here, I'll get him!"

Falco came running back for the vulpine that was dragging across the floor slowly, the pain making him unaware of how futile the action was. Falco threw the vulpine over his shoulders almost effortlessly, and began his run down the hall. Fox managed to wheeze  
"Thanks" before passing out.

Thankfully no more of the beasts caught up with them when the reached the hangar bay. Krystal was holding her blaster at the door as Falco and the limp Fox dashed through the door and continued towards the Arwings. A mutant skidded around the corner as well, but before it could get into the door, Krystal's fully charged blaster turned it into a fine green smoldering paste. Krystal dashed behind Falco. "Program his Arwings auto pilot to take him back to the Great Fox!"

Slippy yelled back, jumping on to the Arwing II instead of the Bull Frog. "I'll just get ROB to do it, there's no time!"

He didn't sit in the cockpit all the way, he just leaned in and hit the ships start up switch, and the power systems came to life. He hit the comm board. "Slippy to Great Fox! ROB, pilot Fox's Arwing II back to the Great Fox on my mark!"

"UNDERSTOOD, AWAITING YOUR MARK."

He jumped out of the waiting Arwing II and back up into the Bull Frog just as Falco carried Fox to the Arwing. Despite the weight of the lupine on his back, he managed to jump up on the wing of the fighter and smoothly dump Fox into the cockpit, doing a quick job of sealing his pilots harness. He pushed down the canopy and it began to close automatically, he made a mad dash for his own fighter as Krystal got to her own.

Mutants began to pour out of the entrance of the bay like mad, and soon they began to fire on the Arwings. All four Arwings shields were up already, and the projectiles harmlessly bounced off as they began to take off. Slippy shouted over the comm channel, "ROB, Get Fox out of here!!!"

They took off and hastily punched their way out of the bay, Fox's Arwing knocking off a mutant that had jumped onto it as they launched with the G-Forces of leaving orbit. As soon as they left the station, the massive disruptor cannons of the Great Fox began to pummel the station, and by the time the Arwings reached the Great Fox, the structure of the station began to buckle.

**Half an Hour Later**

**Great Fox Medical Bay**

The team waited silently as Krystal scanned over Fox with her telepathy. The wound in his leg was terrible, and almost half of his calf had been completely torn away, it would take years to heal completely, and the war wasn't going to wait for him.

Krystal took a deep breath as she pulled away from Fox, her eyes stopped glowing bright blue. Falco was impatient. "Well? What's the diagnosis?"

She hung her head. "Thankfully, he is going to be alright, but his left leg is almost ruined. We may be able to make his Arwing flyable without use of his leg, but he won't be able to do ground missions for a while." A tear came to her eye. "Fox... I'm so sorry."

Sorrow covered everyone in the room. Falco spoke up over the silence. "That could have gone a lot worse, we should be thankful."

Katt butted him lightly with her shoulder. "I'm just glad you're alright, sugar."

Skye nodded, looking at the situation tactically. "You and Fox are certainly the best two pilots amongst us. If it is as bad as it seems, and Fox is no longer capable of running missions, it may be necessary to have Falco as our commander for the time being."

Mina looked at Skye. "We don't know if it's that bad yet, he might pull through this yet."

Slippy broke the argument with a thoughtful look. "There's an option yet."

The team looked at him with an eyebrow cocked each, except for Krystal who was stroking the unconscious Fox's arm with a tear rolling down her cheek. "Prosthetics. I can do it, we can have him up and running in no time."

Krystal gritted his teeth and yelled at all of them. "Would you bastards hold up?! He can still recover, we don't know if we... if..." She broke into tears, collapsing over Fox and crying onto his chest at her knees.

Skye shrugged. "In the meantime, there's repairs that need to be done. Mina and Slippy's fighters both took damage, and it is possible we will be thrown into action again very soon."

With this he left the room, Mina followed close behind him. Before the door hissed shut, Katt butted Falco with her elbow again and pointed her thumb out the door, gesturing to leave Krystal alone with Fox. They left the room together, and Slippy wasn't far behind. Once Fox came back to, they would have to discuss what to do about his leg then.

Skye and Mina were walking together down the hall towards the docking bay. He looked at her, somewhat puzzled. "You want to help again?"

She smiled at him. "I need to learn, remember?"

He looked forwards towards the elevator. "I guess it can't hurt to teach you."

Falco and Katt were heading to the elevator as well, but were walking behind Skye and Mina. She had her arm around his waist. "I'm sure he'll be fine, Falco. He's lasted through tougher things than this."

He shook his head. "I know, but I just think it's kinda crazy how people want me as the leader of the team if anything happens to him. Do you think I can do it?"

She smiled up at him. "Hell, Falco, there's nothing you can't do when you put your mind to it. It's not like it's the first team you've lead, you used to lead the Hot Rodders remember?"

He growled. "That was totally different, here I'm saving Lylat."

She knew he was right, and instead reached up to kiss him. "Let's just get some sleep, maybe Fox will be awake by the morning."

He frowned, checking his watch. "It's only 6:12, Katt. Let's at least grab dinner first."

She giggled, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Okay, but you're making it this time."

"Your funeral."

**Meanwhile**

**Slippy's Quarters**

Slippy rushed into his messy room and to the powerful personal computer he kept in there. It was already on as he had left it, and he checked the download from the station database.

He growled aloud, somehow the system had cancelled the download after he only got 24% of the database. He opened up the files and began to sift through the data he was able to salvage, his beady eyes darting back and forth across the screen. One bit of data caught his eyes in particular, and he brought it up.

_Research Log - Venom Military Research Center Epsilon - July 27th_

_Dr. Gregory Horace_

_Subject; Telepath Conduit_

_-- -- -- --_

_As requested by his Excellency himself, we have begun immediate research on the phenomenon known as telepathy for reasons not yet made clear by the military high command._

He read on through the research findings, stuff he had already known through his stay with Krystal, but then he found subject information.

_Subject list_

_Subject 25122: "Gina"_

_Gender: Female_

_Age: 31_

_Species: Cerinian (?) Fox_

_Subject 25123: "Alrond"_

_Gender: Male_

_Age: 42_

_Species: Cerinian (?) Raccoon_

Slippy read on down the list, shocked by what he saw. horribly cruel tests that had been conducted on them, and worse yet, how they had been apprehended. Slippy was unaware that there were any Cerinians left other than Krystal, he guessed they must have been captured far before he had learned about them.

Continuing through research data, he looked up more about the mutants they had faced, and catching his eye through the document, one particular few lines explained everything.

_Subject 25143: "Cain"_

_Gender: Male_

_Age: 36_

_Species: Lylatian Hare_

_Transformation: Successful_

His jaw dropped, realizing what this meant. He highlighted and saved key important parts of the research that he read through, and saved them. He would tell the rest of the team his findings in the morning.

He checked the clock beside his bed, it read 9:15. He had been cycling through that information for almost 3 hours, and decided to go to bed.

His rest, was not without nightmares.

_((Authors Notes: Not as long as I suspected, but way more action packed. I added a couple of things I didn't have planned but I'm pretty sure I can improvise fix up the story as I go, making it even better than before. I hope you enjoyed it, cause it took me the better part of 10 hours to write it! xD! (i'm easily distracted, mind you.)))_


	9. Chapter 8: Star Wolf

**Chapter 8**

**Star Wolf**

**August 3rd, 9:28 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**Great Fox II Corridors**

Despite having the opportunity to sleep in that morning, Slippy was up early; the thoughts invoked by the previous nights read through of the captured information from the research center had him crawling desperately from one nightmare to the next throughout the night, and the frog had no intention of spending any more time in bed.

As he dragged himself through the corridors of the Great Fox II heading to the medical bay, the frog went through what the rest of the team needed to know in his head. First, it was a distinct possibility that other research stations were devoted to the experimentation on captured Cerinians, and Peppy's fleet would have to be informed of this to get them to capture stations rather than blowing them out of space on sight.

Second, the Venomians seemed to be working on some kind of weapon that uses telepathy as a conduit, possibly using a captured Cerinian as the controller. It was all speculation on his part at the moment, but was definitely a distinct possibility as well. Most of the data never made it to his computer, so he couldn't get more details, but he imagined they had to be working with Cerinians in particular for some purpose or another; and knowing how sick Andross was, it was very likely a weapon of mass destruction.

The last thing he definitely wasn't sure of: Was the transformation into a mutant a side-effect of the experiments, or the intended purpose? Had the mutants been created to their specification, or had been warped by an experiment gone horribly wrong? His instinct made him want the latter, but his reason believed the former. It was very possible that all that remained of Krystal's people were turned into the same flesh eating monsters that nearly completely tore off the leg of his best friend, who before then had almost never taken a hit during combat in his long years of fighting.

He was dressed rather casually in a pair of red sweat pants and a matching light T-shirt. He slouched his way into the ships medical bay to pay a morning visit to Amanda. The door hissed open to greet him, and he wasn't surprised that Amanda and Fox were not alone in the bay. Krystal was asleep on the cot beside Fox's, who still had his leg heavily bandaged.

Krystal awoke with a start upon hearing the hiss of the door, but Slippy was indifferent to have awaken her. The blue vixen looked to the injured Fox beside her and sighed, it indeed had been real instead of just one horrible nightmare. Emitting a groan, Fox awoke from his slumber too. Slippy and Krystal converged on either side of Fox's cot as he awoke.

Seeing his blue angel over him made him break a smile before saying anything. "Good morning, Fox." Krystal said with a kiss to his cheek.

After craning his neck to give her a kiss back, the smile faded. "Any ideas?"

Slippy frowned, the kind of frown that accompanies bad news. "Well, I do have one, but you aren't going to like it."

The fox cocked an eyebrow. "Whatever it is, it has to be better than lying here while there's a war going on around me."

The frog sighed. "I was thinking we install a prosthetic leg, I can do the operation, and maybe have you up and in action in a matter of days. Either way, this isn't a wound that is going to heal without serious transplants, and that could take months."

The brunt force of exactly what he was hearing hit him, and his eyes were fixed onto the roof. It was a long pause before he spoke again. "I just can't believe I'm going to lose my leg over this damn war."

Krystal took his paw between both of her own. "It's a good thing we were there to pull you out of there, or you might have lost a lot more. I don't know what I would have done with myself had you died."

He kept looking at the ceiling in dismay, weighing his options. It was full within his right to just let his leg heal and sit out the rest of the war, but he couldn't abandon his friends. His whole life was war, he thrived on fighting evil, and the people of Corneria needed a hero. Time after time again, it was him, and it would be again as long as he had that option. He had full confidence with his friends, but this foe was more dangerous then any that they had fought in the past. This time his enemies were using more than just swarm with larger numbers tactics; there was a brain behind the combat and not just the cause. The system needed Fox now more than ever.

"I'll do it."

**The same day, 11:40 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**Sargasso Station, Meteo**

**Wolf O'Donnells Private Quarters**

The infamous grey furred killer Wolf O'Donnell sat in his office chair at his desk fiddling with an old bullet-fed 10mm pistol in his right hand, thinking about what to do with his current situation.

The irregular shaped station was the same that Star Fox had ransacked in search of Pigma during the Aparoid invasion. One massive chamber on the lower levels that served as a hangar and cargo bay, and living quarters on their own smaller decks that were reached from the main chamber with a series of elevators. Wolf's room was the most extravagant of the chambers on the station; a living example of him not only being one of the richest pirates, but one of the best. He knew it, his enemies new it, and so did all of Lylat. Wolf was the most infamous killer in the cosmos.

His room was a basic rectangular shape, the door in south east corner, his desk and computer in the south west, Bed and closet door in the north west, and a small personal bar in the north east corner. The center of the room was dominated by a holo projector that was built into the floor, which he took calls from, or just simply watched whatever was broadcasting on Cornerian TV. All of the furniture in the room was extravagant, a display of his wealth and power. Most were top quality imported woods, all of the darker shades.

The worst part of Wolfs situation is that he was down one of his teammates after the loss in Solar's orbit. With the lizard assassin Leon Powalski dead, that only left himself, his now-closest friend Panther, and the other two remaining mercenary pilots. To keep his combat strength at full, his best option would be to offer full time positions on Star Wolf for the greenhorns; perhaps they would make good replacements for his old friend over time.

Another problem is that his one time employer Dash would probably seek revenge for his failure; Dash had paid full in advance for Star Fox's death, and Wolf had not only failed, but lost 10 of his Wolfen-flying mercenary dogs. There was a good chance he would try to kill Wolf and his team in the near future, and Sargasso would have to be abandoned. The only possible factor preventing this would be Meteo being so close to Corneria; would Dash risk sending ships after Wolf being so close to his enemies stronghold?

While pondering the issue, a hiss and a snap heralded the entrance of Panther into his quarters. Panther was his closest friend, and had been for years. Previous members of the team, such as Andrew Oikonny and Pigma Dengar, were simply dogs at his heel for the pay. Good pilots all, but all usually got in his nerves. Panther was taller than Wolf, capping at 6"1. His otherwise pristine black fur was blemished by a thick scar that ran across his muzzle.

Instead of turning around from his view of the asteroid field, he spotted the tall cat through the reflection in the view port on the far wall of the room. Wolf wasn't wearing a shirt at all, just a pair of blue jeans. Panther on the other hand was always well dressed; he was wearing a neat black blazer and matching jeans.

"What do you need, fuzz ball?" Wolf growled at the black feline.

The deep bass of his reply was as calm as always, despite talking to one of the most dangerous killers in Lylat. "I take it you're planning on asking the other two mercenaries to join us?"

It was one of the things that Wolf liked most about Panther; he was smart, and more often then not correctly anticipated Wolf's plans, it made him an excellent team mate and wingman. If Wolf was the duke, Panther was his steward. "Yeah, actually, mind talking to them for me?"

"Don't you think it would make more sense if you came down as well? I imagine you should be properly introduced to people you will be trusting your back to."

The old lupine sighed, he knew Panther was right, he usually was. "Fine. Lemmie get a damn shirt on and I'll meet you down in the mess hall, bring 'em there."

"Right away." Panther said, leaving the room with no extra comment.

Wolf spun around in his office chair and walked over to his closet at the back corner of the room. The door hissed open for him automatically, and he grabbed the first shirt that caught his eye; a simple black long sleeve T. He cared little for what he wore, he commanded respect no matter what he was wearing. He picked up his eye-piece on the way out the door on his end-table, hitting it on his left ear. The headset was specifically designed to force focus his left eye, and also uploaded a HUD on that eye directly to his brain. He used to have one like it, instead a screen was kept in front of the eye, but thanks to modern technology he didn't even need that anymore. The injury to his eye had been from his first encounter with Star Fox on Fichina, while Wolf was still under the exclusive employ of the late Andross. Having been shot down, his left eye had actually been burnt badly. It recovered slowly, and it still required an aide to work properly even after all of the years since the wipe out. It took a close look to see the set under the fur on his ear. He was wearing a simple pair of black boots to go with his jeans, and also went well with his top purely by coincidence.

He briskly made his way to the mess hall, expecting Panther to be there waiting with his two greenhorn recruits by the time he got there. He got a couple of "Lord O'Donnell, Sir!" greetings on his way down the corridors to the mess hall. The pirates under his hire weren't only loyal because of how much he paid them, but out of respect for the old pirates track record. Second best pilot in Lylat short of Fox McCloud, making him the best of the bad guys. He was also one of the most successful crime lords alive, owning a small fleet of pirate run cruisers and cargo ships which added even more to his income. He mostly was able to live a peaceful life, but he never did, always taking the most challenging and ridiculous jobs he could to keep the adrenaline pumping through his 55 year old veins, no matter what the pay. The only people who ever called him Wolf instead of Lord were Panther, and the members of Star Fox. Anyone else who did to his face he usually killed, as an example to pay the due respect to the most dangerous man alive.

It wasn't long before he reached the dirty mess hall of the station. Amongst pirates who were getting in an early lunch, Panther and the two mercenaries were sitting at a table right near the halls bar that was reserved for Wolf and his team. It was kept in the best condition. Always kept clean, and always served first. One of the new pilots was a black furred hare with a menacing look on his face. Wolf couldn't decide whether it was the cocky kind of sneer, or the experienced assassin sneer. The other was simply mammoth; he had never seen such a big gator in his life. Wolf had estimated the dark-green-scaled alligator must have been at least six and a half feet tall, and surprisingly his face was emotionless, the gator looked like he had enough muscle to throw a star fighter across a football field. He looked like nothing short of a professional killer; definitely the right impression to put on. Wolf liked the two candidates already.

When he got to the table, Wolf called over to the barkeep close by, an old grayed raccoon by the name of Garret, who was busy cleaning out a mug. "Hey, Garret, 50:50 vodka and cola, would you?" Instead of replying back, he got right to work mixing the drink.

Wolf sat down, and all three of their eyes were on him. "So, you're the greenhorns. Name's Wolf O'Donnell, if you choose to accept, I'll be your boss for the next few years. First though, I need to hear what you guys can do." He pointed at the hare. "You first, what's your deal?"

The rabbit leaned back in his chair. "Name's Ben, been hacking systems ever since I was a kid, eventually got good enough to crack bank security and rob them without ever leaving my office. Took up flying as a pass time, and got pretty good at it. Not much more to tell."

Wolf shrugged. "Sounds good to me." he looked at the gator. "Lemmie guess, your dad was a Landmaster."

For the first time Wolf could see, the beast smirked. his voice was even deeper than Panthers, and had a very aussie accent. "Names Bryce, I specialized in interrogation during the big war, but once Andross was taken down I took odd jobs for private contractors. Go there, kill that guy kinda stuff, without the stealth. Usually competition of some sort, the kind the cops don't give a damn if I snuff out. Often I had to provide transport for myself so I took up piloting, got damn good at the yoke of a fighter. The Wolfen in particular, 'cause I had to have mine customized so I could fit in the damn thing."

Wolf smirked. "I like what I hear here. I'll give you two a try, turns out we might be out blowing shit up sooner than I thought. You see, that dick Dash paid us in advance for the job at Solar, and since we fucked up, he's going to want his money back one way or another. Frankly, he can take it over my dead body, chances are he's going to try."

When he finished this thought, Garret came around with his drink. Wolf absently took the mug in his right hand. "Here you are, sir." Wolf raised the drink to Garret. "Thanks, buddy." The raccoon got back to his work at the bar.

Panther leaned forward. "Has he contacted you yet?"

Wolf took a sip of his booze. "Nah, but I'm pretty sure he's going to want to gloat at me before he tries to take us out." His wrist communicator started to beep at him. Flipping it up, he saw the face of one of the captains of his attack cruisers, a white furred cat with an eye patch covering his right eye. "Lord O'Donnell, we're reading several enemy contacts coming into our territory. Orders?"

Wolf gritted his teeth. "Move to engage, I'll be out there soon. Order everyone on the station to evacuate, take all the cargo and valuables you can, we're bugging out. All ships and men get into the air and rendezvous at Fichina."

The cat nodded. "Right away my lord!" and the communicator winked out to black once more. Wolf stood up. "Guess he's sneakier than I thought. We need to bug the fuck out, get to your fighters and let's show that stinking apes how we pirates conduct business.

The next five minutes were utter chaos, alarms blaring and men scrambling down the stations corridors grabbing everything they need. Looking out the window of the hall the team was running down, Wolf could see his ships moving into position to stop little pinpricks that were moving towards his station, and then he noticed that the attackers weren't ships at all.

He flipped open his communicator again while on the run, and dialed up the captain again. "Halsey, those aren't ships, those are fucking missiles! Move to intercept before they hit us, we need to get everyone out before any you miss hit us!" The cats face turned far more serious. "Got it! Moving to intercept!" the communicator winked black once more as the team finally reached the elevator that would descend them to the main part of the station, the massive room that was both the hangar and the cargo bay.

The elevator shot them downwards quickly into the hangar bay, and the for pilots rushed to their respective Wolfens. Strapping himself in, Wolf began a shortened start up checklist. The diagnostics board on the dash of the cockpit lit up green for each system one at a time as the canopy closed. "As soon as you launch, target them damn missiles! Don't let even one through!"

As soon as his Wolfen was warmed up, he jammed on his repulsor lifts and the Wolfen shot off the deck, hovering above the ground. His thrusters kicked to life next, shooting him out of the hangar mag-con field at break-neck speeds, his three team-mates followed suit. Wolf checked his radar, several clusters of red blips were in all directions from the station. There were 5 missiles, each with fighter support of about 4 fighters each.

He gritted his teeth. "Hate it when people underestimate me. Bring down those missiles so the cargos can escape. Haul ass boys!"

The first cruiser out under his command was already heading for one missile, each of the Wolfens broke off and took their own. At the speed they were moving, the missiles wouldn't even have a chance to get near Sargasso. Wolf sped for his target at full throttle. 4 fighters were scrambling around the missile, clearing a path through the asteroids. Wolf couldn't believe how easy it would be; he could throw a smart bomb in there and cause enough havoc and impact to plow the missile right into an asteroid.

As soon as he was in range, he locked on to the hammerhead missile. The reticule on the fighters HUD turned red and the satisfying beep that was a successful lock on coaxed Wolf to hit the smart bomb trigger on the top of the fighters yoke; the brilliant red of a smart bomb trail illuminated the dark asteroid belt. The bomb plowed into an asteroid just in front of the missile, and havoc ensued. An amazingly bright explosion engulfed the missile and the surrounding fighters.

Just as he thought the explosion was done, an asteroid that must have been full of unrefined fuel blew as well, adding to the madness. Wolf did a U-Turn away from the missiles former position as a ball of superheated metal and rock rushed away from the explosion threatening to put dozens of holes in the Wolfens hull.

"Wolf here, one down, 4 to go."

"Panther here, three left."

"Ben, done."

"Bryce, just coming into range now."

Wolf checked his radar, and Bryce had picked the missile that was furthest away from the station; just getting into bomb range now. He watched as the cluster of red dots on his radar turned into a red fog of static, then faded. Cargo ships and cruisers under his command began to converge in the direction of Fichina, breaking their way out of the asteroid belt. Wolf noticed Halsey's cruiser doing the same, having dealt with the missile they were entrusted with destroying.

Wolf paced himself with the lead cargo ship that was making it's way through the asteroid field, it's shields effortlessly pushing away rocks in it's path. All of the ships under Wolf's command had special shields installed that would repel rock matter, it was essential when their base of operations was in the middle of the thickest asteroid zone in Lylat.

As the last ships escaped the base, another wave of missiles appeared on radar; but since everyone had escaped, there wasn't reason left to stop them.

When the missiles struck the station, explosions began to erupt throughout the entire station. Chunks of the massive structure broke off in rapid succession, and by the time the last missile hit, the stations reactor went out; illuminating the entire surrounding asteroid field with a bright ball of destruction. Surrounding asteroids were sent sprawling away from it, and some of the closer ones were simply blown to a fine dust.

Wolf watched as what had been his home for the last 20 years was blasted to nothingness. He vowed vengeance to himself; he wouldn't rest until he had re painted his Wolfen with Dash's blood.

"All ships, as soon as you hit Fichina, re plot course for Kew, we can probably find a temporary base there until we find a new place to stay."

He heard several "Affirmatives" in reply, and as his ships broke the asteroid field, they began to jump to hyperspace. Wolf made one last U-Turn to get a look at his former home; it was split into 4 or 5 distinct sections, with multitudes of debris. Wolf turned away from Sargasso for the last time as he made the warp jump to Fichina. From there he programmed a second jump into the auto pilot that would bring him straight to Kew.

**4 Hours Later, 5:13 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Orbit of Kew, Beyond Lylat's outer Rim**

The Wolfen snapping out of hyperdrive awoke Wolf from his nap, he was in close proximity to all of the ships under his command, all in orbit around the small purple industrialized planet of Kew. If Wolf didn't know better the sinister nature of the planet, he would have thought the planet looked beautiful. It was a deep lavender, which made him think that Panther was already probably planning a date with the next woman he picked up; he probably thought the view would have been romantic. Wolf snickered at the thought; wondering how Panther planned to keep the Wolfen from firing out of control while he was screwing the bitch in the cockpit of his fighter.

Snapping back out of his thought train, he took a quick check of their surroundings. To his luck, there were no Cornerian patrol ships in orbit, he may very well have been done fighting for the day.

He hit the button on his comm board that opened a channel to all friendly ships. "Alright, I'm going to see if I can't get us a place on one of the orbital docking yards, just stay in orbit 'till I give the word. Panther, Ben, Bryce, form up on my wing."

The three Wolfens formed up on him without a word, and he got a message back from captain Halsey. "Yes, Mi'lord. Waiting for your order." Wolf absolutely loved being called that, the idea that he was a revered warlord had always tickled his fancy. Him and the other three Wolfen pilots headed to the largest dock they could see. Perhaps Bryce's skills could come in handy convincing the administration to let Wolf use a few cargo ship docking ports.

The Kew Orbital Docking Yards were known centers for black market trade; it was no secret. but yet it was always ignored by the Cornerian authorities; predictably because what happened this far off from the lofty home world had little significance on the daily affairs of the Cornerian Navy. Little did the Cornerians know that their number one wanted killer was right on their doorstep for the last 20 years, which was incredibly ironic how they save their navy for threats closer to home but leave the worst one alone.

The yards were simply a mangled mess of docking ports of every shape and size, all branching out of a huge central facility that served as docking bays, a market place, and living quarters for the crew of the facility. The docking bays looked like hundreds of metal lines extending in random directions away from the facility, with smaller buildings at the junctions. Hundreds of ships were littered around the docking ports; but not as busy as Wolf had remembered it. It was possible that the black market was lying low while the war was going on. Good for the navy so they can concentrate on the fighting. It made no difference to Wolf; if the black market wasn't giving him a job, the military was.

Wolf's comm board detected the landing request frequency for the station, and he switched to it. "Star Wolf to Kew Orbital Docking, requesting permission to land."

After a minute of silence, he got an answer. "Cleared to land at fighter docking port 12-H, coordinates have been uploaded to your onboard computer. Enjoy your stay."

Without further banter, the four pilots flew to the assigned fighter pads. Apparently the person in charge of assigning ports knew just how important the team was; they were sent to one of the quieter ends of the station, and it was relatively clean and clear compared to the busier docks. Four small landing pads were branched out of a long bridge that connected to a spherical central building, which connected to the biggest sphere of them all, the main facility in the center of the yards. Their little corner of the massive spider web that was the Kew Orbital Docking Yards couldn't have looked more inviting after their little ordeal in Meteo.

When they landed, the dome-like mag-con fields of each pad were rapidly filled with atmosphere before the pilots jumped out onto the deck. They met on the bridge section that lead to docking bay 12's control building. "Alright, lets see if we can't convince this guy to give us some cheap parking for the rest of the ships... Bryce, you may need to exercise that 'interrogation' skill of yours."

The gator cracked his knuckles, a sickening crunch that made even Wolf cringe. "With pleasure."

They walked to the grey sphere that was the control building, and the door hissed open for them. Two armed guards were pointing blasters at them right off the bat, and a nervous looking brown furred cat dressed in an expensive suit was looking at Wolf. "You had best explain your business here, before we let you any further, Star Wolf. We don't like your kind here."

Wolf rolled his eyes, and snapped his fingers on his left hand. Almost instantly, Panther snapped in front of one of the guards, bending his shooting arm in such a way that a loud crack was heard as the guards arm snapped. Bryce simply took a lightning quick step forward and smashed one of his tree-trunk like arms into the other guards head, dropping him like a dead sack of meat, which he probably was at that point. Ben rushed for the dead guards rifles, and quickly tossed one to Wolf, pointing his own at the business man, who barely had time to throw his hands in the air.

"Oh god, oh god!" he cried at the sight. I'll do whatever you want, just don't kill me please!" The cat whimpered, falling to his knees. "I didn't mean it, it was only my job! I have to ask questions!!"

Wolf cocked an eyebrow. "Well, that was easy. Listen up, dirt bag." He kneeled in front of the cat to level himself with the sniveling coward, squeezing the barrel of the rifle into the throat of the cat. "I need docking for 5 medium sized cargo ships and 6 cruisers. I imagine docking section 12 has sufficient room?"

The cat looked up at him. "Just barely, yes. You can use them, please, be my guest!"

Wolf just got up and walked back out the door of the building. "Good kitty." he said while exiting, as his team followed him out. Ben snickering wildly at what they had just done.

Bryce sighed. 'That was satisfying." He rocked his neck to either side, causing his neck to sound a similarly sickening crunch as to when Panther broke the one guards arm.

Wolf flipped open his communicator again, Halsey coming into view immediately. "Get all of the ships down to docking port 12, we have... Uh... VIP access." He said that with a chuckle. "We can stay here for now until I swindle us a new permanent base of operations."

The white furred feline nodded briskly. "Understood, Executor moving in to dock now. Halsey out."

The large cruiser, the one under the command of Halsey, called the _Executor_, slowly drifted to dock just across from the Wolfens. On long trips, Star Wolf used that ship as their mobile base, being outfit for VIP visitors such as himself, along with suitable launch bays for the Wolfens. He considered it the Star Wolf equivalent of the Great Fox, although it pained him to admit the Great Fox would definitely win in a one-on-one. The Executor was just a cruiser, while the Great Fox was a whole damn assault carrier about three times the size. The Executor looked more like a repainted Venomian assault ship from the first Lylat War, which were only prototypes back then tasked with supporting the Area 6 defense zone. The ship had a more cylindrical body with three huge thrusters on the back arranged in a point-down triangle, the three engines together were slightly thicker than the body Two stubby wings pointed out either side of the ship, with smaller auxiliary thrusters mounted on them.

Different assortments of weaponry ran all along the port and starboard sides of the ship; 2 heavy beam cannons, 4 missile tubes, 4 laser cannons and a flak gun on each side for point blank missile defense. It wasn't the most heavily armed ship in Lylat, but it was certainly the strongest of it's size class, easily taking on anything smaller than a full on war ship. With the assistance of the Wolfens, it was more than capable on taking on any threat in the system if it played its cards right. Except maybe the Great Fox.

"How much of my belongings were recovered?" Wolf asked the captain impatiently.

"More or less everything, I had a couple of men go through your quarters during the escape, I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all, I'm glad they did. Have all of our stuff transferred to the appropriate quarters, we'll be staying aboard Executor until we have a new base."

"Aye sir, Halsey out."

The communicator winked out again, as the team headed for the ship. Instead of going with the others aboard however, Wolf headed to his fighter. Panther stopped before getting aboard the cruisers docking ramp. "Wolf, where are you going?"

He didn't bother turning around. "Old friends night club down on the surface, gonna see if he can hook us up with a new base, I'm sure he has some old hideout he knows about."

"Should I come?"

"Do what you want."

The black cat did just that; following Wolf back to the fighter launch pads. "What are we going to do next, do you think?"

"Probably going to have to do a favour for this friend of mine in exchange for a new hideout, something fun knowing him. I imagine he has some kind of competition he needs removed from the picture. Although, he might want us to escort one of his cargo ships, which will be boring as fuck."

"I imagine it will be worth a new home in the end, how often do you get a deal like that?."

"Pretty often when you're as famous as me, actually." he grunted.

The engine of his Wolfen was still relatively warm, and started up quickly. He kicked up the repulsor lifts, and tilted the craft away from the docking port, slamming his thrusters on full. Panther kept beside him expertly.

His radar began to beep at him suddenly as they were pulling away from the docking yards towards the planet. Amongst all of the blue no combat dots on his radar, 4 large red blips appeared. "Panther, you see that?"

"Four Venomian battleships just dropped in."

"Where in the fuck do those fuckers keep coming from?!? Arghhh!" He roared, not in the mood for another scrap.

Wolf turned to face the battle ships, they were in a tight box formation heading straight for Kew. Suddenly one of the ships broadcasted on an open channel. "This is the honorable Venomian battle ship _War Hammer_, you will surrender at once to our marshal law or the surface of your planet shall be blasted to oblivion. You have 5 minutes to respond."

A response came much quicker than either Wolf or Panther expected, as 3 green dots appeared from the other side of the planet, 3 Cornerian battle ships. An old rugged military man voice called back. "Go fuck yourself, we aren't going down without a fight."

The two groups of ships began to move on each other. "Should we intervene?" Panther asked.

"Yeah. Ben, Bryce, this is Wolf, a couple of Venomian ships just jumped in, we need you in the sky pronto. Executor, I want you up here too. Get back in the air and lets take these ass holes for a ride!"

Wolf fired his thrusters top speed towards the formation of enemy ships. Battle ships were meant to take down other ships, not small fighters. He would easily be able to dance around that huge hunk of plate armor and take out it's primary systems one by one. Panther stayed close on his wing.

The Executor launched rather quickly, as well as one other cruiser, each was accompanied by a Wolfen, Ben and Bryce. Ben jumped in on the comm. "They better be able to back up their words, I was just about to eat."

Wolf snickered to himself. "Three Cornerian battleships, 2 of our cruisers, and 4 Wolfens versus their 4 Battle ships. This should be a joke."

His targeting computer took the liberty of getting a fix on the closest of the ships. The large rectangular warships look intimidating from a distance, but Wolf knew better. The Venomian empire being a relatively new power, there was few combat experienced men; any who were would have remained loyal to Corneria. The crews of the Venomian ships were more than likely greenhorns looking to expand their ego's with an easy win. Unfortunately for them, Star Wolf had other plans.

The Wolfens locked into a classic X formation, leading just in front of the Executor, the cruiser at maximum thrust to keep up with the nimble fighters. The Battleships didn't even have any accompanying fighters. Wolf watched his radar as the Cornerian ships approached. Cornerian battleships were superior in firepower and shielding to the Venomians, but were slower. Wolfs team would be starting this engagement; he hoped the Executor would survive a few rounds of concentrated fire, enough time for the Cornerians to get into position.

"Alright boys, we need to take their guns down so they cant but a dent in the Executor."

Wolf sped ahead of the cruiser, and the others kept tight in behind them. If they could hit the battleships heavy beam turrets before the Executor was in their firing range, it wouldn't have to worry much about defense once it got close enough to use its own guns.

Wolf wasn't going to take any risks; the Executor was going to be his home for the time being.

Wolf quickly came into range of the battleships; unfortunately for them, their 4 corners formation made all of the ships but one blind to the Wolfens if they flew on the outside of the ring of the formation. The four fighters led in with lasers, predictably they were soaked up by the battle ships shields. That would be fixed quickly enough.

The ship poured poorly aimed shrapnel at them from it's flak turrets, Wolf weaved left and right a little at a time preventing any damage at all. He shot right into its shield, which flickered in protest. Ship defense shields were designed to block out energy weaponry, not a fighter. This advantage had been used by fighter pilots for decades, and was the primary anti-capital ship tactic. Some small cruisers even manage to bring a couple of their guns within a shield of a much larger ship some times, compromising the enemy defense while keeping their own.

The three Wolfens followed behind him in single file, and they strafed the side of the ship as they passed. Flames and debris shot out of the side of the ship with a silent explosion with every hit that the ship took; Wolf had always regretted that sound doesn't carry in space, it took much of the satisfaction out of a good old explosion.

To Wolf's satisfaction, most of the weaponry on that side of the ship was ruined from the strafe run. Flames licked out of the side of the ship at several places.

The team was a bit too late however, as the battleships were already getting a firing position on the Executor, and only one had it's guns disabled, and only on one side. Wolf pulled a painfully fast U-Turn and boosted back through the ships shield canopy. This time, the ship somehow managed to get a missile lock on him. Breaking off his run as the missile is launched, he hits the thrust. Instead of launching a countermeasure, he would guide it right into one of the other battleships shields.

The advantage of the missile is that it followed the same rule with shields as fighters did. It glided right past them. That was originally why Flak guns were invented at all, so that missiles can other ballistic explosives could be stopped before impacting on a capital ship. Wolf didn't intend to let his target shoot his pursuer down, however. He plunged into it's shields, predictably enough it's flak gun began to roar, but not at the missile, at him. Dodging expertly, and the missile following him equally so, Wolf strafed the side of the ship where the flak gun was around, and was gratified with a hit. The flak gun had stopped firing. He did a quick check of how much lag was between his movements and the missiles corrections; and at the right moment, pulled away from his ballistic course with the battleship. The missile rammed right into the side of the battle ship, and to his satisfaction, ripped a huge hole in the ships hull. One of the two engines behind the hit section cut out, and the ship went adrift as Wolf pulled away from it.

The other members of the squad had teamed up on one of the two remaining full strength ships, but failed to stop the beam cannons in time. One of the fresh battle ships charged up it's main cannons, and a brilliant lance of light slammed into the shields of the Executor. The cruiser took the hit like a champ; it's shields would be able to take about 5 of those hits before the generator fried.

Captain Jack Halsey sat in his chair aboard the small bridge of the Executor, the whole ship shook with the impact of the battleships beam cannon. The old white cats gruff voice came out almost as a bark. "Damage report!"

A black furred goat turned to face him from his station. "The shields took the hit, down to 79%. It hit us a lot harder than normal for some reason, no clue captain!"

He gritted his teeth. The Wolfens were doing a good job whacking the guns on those ships, but it was going to be close. It wouldn't be long before the Executors shields would go down. "Watch for missile locks and return fire on the undamaged ship."

The goat turned back to his station. "Aye. Oh, and the Cornerian ships are coming into range now."

He was right. The bridge of the Executor had a half hemisphere view port, giving the captain a good look to the ships port or starboard sides. Looking to his left, he saw the three huge capital ships coming into range, they were already in effective range for beam cannon fire.

Surely enough, all three ships began to charge both of their beam cannons each. The blue lances of deadly energy were all directed towards the ship that had fired on the Executor. The battleships shields were torn asunder, with a bright blue flash, they gave in. The lasers crashed right through the ship, tearing it nearly in half. Jack whistled in excitement. "Never thought I would be glad to see military ships in action."

Wolf smirked in his cockpit. "I hear that. Let's clean up the last three." The ship Wolf was tangling with was pretty much ruined after the missile strike; limping on one engine, with no point blank defense guns on the side Wolf was pestering. The rest of the team was picking on the ship they had strafed first.

Panther came on the comm. "First ships shields are down, firing smart bomb. Watch the fireworks."

'Watch the fireworks', in pilots terms, meant to stand the hell back from whatever ship that pilot was engaged with, because it was about to explode; and when a capital ship explodes, it makes one hell of a mess. Surely enough, Wolf could see the smart bomb explosion go off; and with it, the battleship that had been the victim of the hit was breaking apart. With a grand explosion, it was thrown into 5 or 6 distinct pieces, which would drift in space for millennia to come.

Wolf pulled his craft along the top of his target; and spotted the shield generator dish right away. He locked onto it, and his twin laser cannons did their work on the dish; smashing it like a ceramic dinner plate with deadly green bolts of energy. Wolf watched in satisfaction as the shield winked out on the ship. It's laser turrets were frantically firing to take him down.

He rolled back to the side he had been working on, and pulled away with a very wide summersault. When his direction was corrected back towards the ship again, he took aim at the hole the missile had created. "Smart bomb locked, this crates gonna blow."

He hit the trigger ontop the yoke of his fighter, and the bomb leaped out of the front of his craft. He wanted to watch the explosion badly, but he needed to turn around quickly and gain more distance from the ship before it blew. He changed his course towards the last crippled battleship as the one behind him cracked in half under the brilliant force of the smart bomb.

It was then that all of the ships involved were ready for their second shot. The Venomian ship got his in first; the deadly blue beam of energy slammed into the Executor, but it was not enough to crack the cruiser, and it tried to make a tailspin in vain as the Executor, and the three Cornerian ships, charged their own beam cannons.

The impact was brilliant; all four ships firing in unison, 8 beams of destructive energy slamming into the shieldless victim that was the _War Hammer_. The ship exploded immediately, sending chunks of itself in every direction.

The old Cornerian ship commander hailed Wolfs fighter. "Thanks for the assist, Star Wolf. I think we can overlook your bounty for today for that one."

Wolf sighed. "Wasn't coming with you either way. Any idea where the buggers came from?"

"Our scanners picked up their warp trail, heads to the middle of nowhere. Must be something out there, a worm hole or something. We don't know what we will be dealing with over there, so I'm going to call in reinforcements before we go in."

"Don't bother, we'll take care of it. Executor, hold position here, we'll go alone and scout out whatever the hell is out there."

Halsey's face appeared on his comm screen on the dash. "Understood, holding position."

"Team, on me."

The three other Wolfens drifted into position with him, he noticed that Ben's Wolfen was chucking sparks. "Rabbit, what the fuck happened?"

"They got a lucky hit with the flak gun, my left cannons glitching but I'm fine otherwise."

"Good. Prep for warp jump."

As his ship was stretched into hyper speed, the Wolfens behind him jumped right in after him.

**Outer Space**

**6:58 PM Lylat Standard Time**

Wolf sat calmly in his pilots couch for only ten minutes before the ship jerked back into normal space again; what he saw grinded his gears right away.

There was two more Venomian battle ships, plus a third coming out of what looked like a giant green portal. It looked like a smaller version of the Corneria jump gate. A small facility was in orbit around it. "What you guys think?"

Ben spoke up. "I'm frankly amazed the Cornerians never picked this up on long range. 50 credits say that the little satellite thing is a signal cleanser of some sort, with the big dish on it, that looks like its geared for something like that."

Bryce was next. "'Think he's right, boss. Can't just hide a portal like that with any normal means."

The low bass of Panther seemed almost in glee. "Then we blow the thing, and watch in laughter as the Cornerian fleet turns this little side show into a mess of debris as soon as they see it."

Wolf grinned. "Agreed. Fast and hard, blow that thing to bits. Anyone got smart bombs?"

Ben was the only one that answered. "Me, you guys all used them on the battle ships."

Wolfs grin dissipated. "Well that's no fun. Alright, lets keep an eye on fur ball so he can drop his load on that satellite."

The four Wolfens went to max throttle, and surely enough the three battleships had detected them. They all turned course to intercept; but the nimble Wolfens would be done their job before they got into position to fire. Not that they would be able to snipe the small fighters anyway.

Ben got into position as quickly as he could, squeezing off his shot as soon as he was in range. The bomb fired at the satellite straight and true; smashing into its dish. The explosion was brilliant, and way bigger than it should have been. The Wolfens were blown right off course from the shockwave, but no one had winked off of Wolf's radar. Typically enough, one huge red line on his radar signified the uncovering of the portal device on radar. The Cornerian high command would be spotting the device on max-range sensors any moment.

"Ok boys, lets clear out!"

The three battleships were moving into position, and one tried to get a snipe off with it's heavy beam cannon. With a flash of blue, a huge laser made a near miss on Bryce, who pulled off course just in time to prevent getting fried. The Wolfens got ready to jump back to Kew immediately.

As the fighters stretched back into hyperspace, Ben was heard yelling over the comm. "YEEEEHAWWWW!!!"

The buzz of the moment wore off quickly as they sat and waited in hyperspace on the trip back to Kew. Comm was disabled, so there would be no discussing what they were going to do; but really they shouldn't have to do anything. The Cornerians would call in reinforcements and pounce on the portal like an angry cat on a mouse.

**Kew Orbit**

**7:12 PM Lylat Standard Time**

The four Wolfens came out of hyperspace. The Cornerian reinforcements weren't there yet, but it wouldn't be long before they moved in to smash the portal and the battleships that were there. Wolf went into the last received transmissions list on his comm board and found the lead Cornerian ships frequency, dialing it in. "O'Donnell here, you guys see what just came up on radar?"

The old commanders voice answered him promptly. "Roger that, what is that thing?"

Wolf explained. "Portal of some kind, they're moving ships through it. There's three battleships there so far but probably more on the way, you should probably get a few reinforcements."

"It just so happens that the Great Fox is on it's way to do just that. Feel like joining the fray?"

Wolf rolled his eyes. "If Foxy is going to be there, to hell with it. I'm going to get something to eat."

**((Authors Note: I'm sorry everyone! I almost let this die. This chapter was one of the shorter ones but it's important, and a reminder that I haven't forgotten about this! Problem was, I let it slide for about a week then when I went to continue it, my folder with all relevant files in it was gone. No idea what happened. Had to rewrite my synopsis from scratch, and start chapter 8 all over. A good thing did come of it though, as I was able to add a whole bunch more cool ideas to my story plan with the refit. High expectations for chapter 9! See you next time!))**


	10. Chapter 9: Lost and Found

**Chapter 9**

**Lost and Found**

**Fichina Orbit**

**August 3rd, 7:13 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Great Fox II Bridge**

Falco sat uneasily in the lofty captains chair on the bridge of the Great Fox. He knew that it wasn't a rightfully earned position, but he knew he would have to fill the spot to the best of his capabilities until the time arose where Fox was ready for combat again. Falco looked down to he frozen ball that was Fichina with a look of boredom on his face; the lack of action was a nice change, but he would rather be blowing something up, as was his nature.

Worst of all, Falco was beginning to wonder whether they had struck a sore spot only on the one research station; the one they had found in Sector X had been completely abandoned. Slippy had guessed it was the same one they used to construct the massive mechanized secret weapon that had been in Sector X during the Lylat war, and based on the kind of research data they had found there, it seemed his guess couldn't be far off.

The mission to Sector X was the day before, and this day was the first without action in the better part of a week. No calls from the military brass, no strange sensor readings, no spontaneous ambushes. Falco was grateful for the rest, but when there was a war going on around him, it made him uncomfortable to be sitting still, even if only for a day.

The silence was more bearable having someone to spend it with for a change; Katt sat on one of the officers chairs to the left of the captains seat. It appeared she had already fallen into a nap; Falco was the only one on the bridge that was awake. Slippy was in the medical bay preparing for Fox's surgery, Krystal was probably there as well. Skye and Mina spent quite a bit of time with the Arwings, and it was probable that's where they were.

It was then however, in his stupor of boredom, that his prayers were answered. The communications console lit up. ROB waddled over to it. "COMMUNICATION FROM GENERAL PEPPY. HIGH PRIORITY."

Falco was disturbed from his half slumber with a start. "Put 'im on screen, ROB."

The sudden presence of sound awoke Katt beside him, who squinted a couple of times before realizing what was going on. She slipped into a more proper posture on her seat. Falco remained leaning on his left arm, he was rather indifferent talking to Cornerian high command members; especially Peppy who he had known for years.

Still in the same red uniform, Peppy was sitting at his admirals chair on the bridge of the Patriot, as always. "Falco, we've got work for you. We just got a really strange sensor reading near Kew, records suggest some kind of portal, but it wouldn't make sense for one to be in such a remote location. We have reason to believe it is part of a back-door ambush tactic by the Venomians; I have no idea why it would only be revealed now, but that is what we need you to solve. The Great Fox is the closest ship to the device; we need you to get there and investigate."

Falco sat up. "And if it is Venomian, blow it to high hell, right?"

The old hare nodded. 'Right. I'm uploading the coordinates to you now."

Falco looked over to the navigation console on the other side of the bridge, which lit up and began processing data. "Yeah, I got it."

Peppy smiled. "Good, hail me back when you figured out what the disturbance is. Peppy out."

The screen winked out, and rather than walking to the Nav console himself, he decided to delegate authority. "Hey. ROB, punch in those coordinates and get us there would you? I gotta get ready."

"UNDERSTOOD." The robot began wireless interaction with the ship, and the view of the planet below began to shift as the Great Fox moved into position to make the warp jump to Kew. Falco nodded to Katt, who got up with him to make their way to the hangar bay. Falco hit a button on his headset. "Everyone, we got a job. Some kind of portal near Kew we gotta blow up. Get to your Arwings."

**5 Minutes Later**

**Docking Bay**

Falco was still a bit drowsy, and almost lost his balance when the ship lurched into hyperspace upon leaving Fichina's immediate gravity well. He shook his head to let a little oxygen perturb his brain from it's half sleep state. It was only 7 at night. Why the hell was he so tired?

Katt kept her balance fine, however, and giggled at his stumble. "Sure you're fit to fly?"

He shot her a glare. "Of course! I'm always fit to fly."

They had just got off the elevator that lead them to the docking bay. Skye was already sitting in his cockpit, Mina was stuffing a rifle into the cargo bay of the Ranger. Slippy wouldn't be coming at all, he would be installing Fox's leg during this mission. Falco hoped sincerely that nothing went wrong.

The only member of the team that was going on the mission and wasn't at the docking bay yet was Krystal, who was probably lagging behind staying with Fox for an extra minute or two. A thought crawled up into his mind absently; what happens if she is distracted by her worries for Fox during a dogfight? He didn't want another Macbeth incident; especially when that psycho Fox wasn't around to do something insane to save her.

He dismissed the worry; she was a professional, he seriously doubted she would do something so stupid.

As he approached his own fighter, he casually mentioned to Mina. "This mission is all in space, won't need your blasters."

She sighed. "Oh, alright then." She didn't bother taking the weapon back out, she just let the cargo bay seal up again and jumped into her cockpit, waiting for the Great Fox to reach the portal device.

Skye, laying back in his pilots couch cradling his head with his hands, spoke up. "So, what's the details on this portal?"

Falco shrugged. "No idea. Peppy just got the signal like, within the hour. All we know is that it's probably Venomian, and it's probably spitting out ships."

Skye shook his head. "Too many probabilities. I don't like this at all."

Falco shook his own. "You worry too much. I'm sure it's nothing we can't handle."

Leaping into the cockpit of the Sky Claw, Falco began to run over his pre-flight checklist, but not all the way through. He didn't activate his thrusters; it would still be a bit before they reached their destination, even with the Great Fox II's powerful hyperspace drive. It wasn't long at all though for Krystal to show up, she looked very rattled. Stress was obviously getting to her seeing Fox bashed up like he is.

Without a word she got into her own cockpit, and started running the pre-flight checklist. She had none of her usual grace or bounce to any of her actions. Falco was getting sick of the gloomy demeanor of all of the pilots in general. He called out across the bay. "Christ people, what's up? You all look like you just woke up from hibernation!"

Skye scoffed at him sarcastically. "Well, it could be the fact our beloved leader just had his leg blown off, or maybe it's just me."

Falco rolled his eyes. This was going to be a long night.

**2 Hours Later**

**9:20 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Venomian Portal Device**

The docking bay alarm blared as the ship rocked from exiting hyperspace. ROB's voice immediately filled each of the 5 pilot's cockpits. "PREPARE FOR LAUNCH, WE HAVE REACHED THE COMBAT ZONE. DOCKING BAY DOORS OPENING."

Falco was snapped out of his nap again with the sudden rush of sound. By instinct he finished his start up checklist. The Sky Claw was more than sufficiently warmed by the 2 and a half hours of being half started up; the other members were obviously more ready, as Skye and Mina were already moving up to the docking bay doors on repulsor lifts, ready to launch.

Skye scoffed. "Wake up Falco, combat time."

"Shut up, you."

"Yes sir." The bird rolled his eyes again as he drifted his Arwing smoothly to the right of Mina, who was to the right of Skye. Krystal and Katt drifted in behind them last.

"Ok, here's the plan." Falco was running through the details in his head; typically, he never actually thought of a plan before hand. "We need to cover the Great Fox as it pounds that portal device. Simple enough?"

Mina was checking her radar to get a feel for the situation; there was 5 large red blips circling a big line. It was fair to assume the line was the portal; and the blobs were larger attack ships, probably battleships. Then 3 new blobs appeared, and they were green, just a bit larger than the Venomian ships. "Three Cornerian battleships just dropped in guys. Should we keep an eye on them too?"

Falco grinned, this would make the job far easier. "We'll let them distract the Venomians while we pound that portal. Everyone who is packing smart bombs, save em for the portal. Everyone else, disarm those battleships."

There was no sign of affirm from his team mates, but he assumed they had heard him. "Alright, team Star Fox, launch!"

He said this as soon as the docking bay doors had opened all the way. The 5 Arwings shot out of the docking bay like cannonballs towards the portal device, which was actively spewing out a 6th battleship. If they hit the portal fast enough that ship would never make it to this side. They formed up in an arrowhead formation, and hit the boost in unison.

The enemy ships were obviously torn on what to do; intercept the three incoming Cornerian ships, or take on Star Fox? They outweighed both groups put together in firepower and defenses, but they knew better than to underestimate the Star Fox team. All of the ships simply held their ground at the portal; they would take on both forces at once.

Falco dialed up ROB on his comm. "ROB, form up with the Cornerian ships, we'll go in first and bring down their beam cannons so they can't toast you."

"AFFIRMATIVE."

He switched back to team frequency. "Alright, pick your targets and take out their anti-capital ship guns. The less resistance the heavies take the quicker this is done."

The 5 Arwings broke off in their own ballistic paths towards whatever battleship they picked to take down. As was the basic Venomian battleship design, the heavy laser cannons would be on either side right behind the bridge on the front of the rectangular ships. For maximum effect, they would go into the ships shields right head on to make sure they hit the beam cannons, then hit whatever else they could before breaking off. They had to do this twice to disable both beam cannons.

The Arwings of course made it to their target first. Falco checked which direction each of the Arwings were going and picked the last remaining battleship. He approached it just like any other battleship run; head on. What shocked him is that the ship began to charge one of it's lead beam cannons. Normally the extensive cool down time of these weapons made it unadvisable to waste the shots from these massive weapons; but it looked like these guys were willing to take the risk to have a chance at wiping out their incoming doom.

All five of the ships in fact, were charging their beam cannons. Skye's jaw dropped at this. "10 beams, and we can't even tell what direction they're going to fire. I think we're in a lot of trouble here."

Falco sighed. "You really are new at this aren't you? Get cover behind one of their own, then the worst that can happen is the shot being wasted, at best whacking one of their own ships."

There were no more words; they had mere seconds until the deadly volley of energy wiped them off the face of the Lylat system. Falco dived towards his target with his boost on full, its lower right side (from his view of the front of the ship) offered complete cover from all of the devastating weapons. The ships flak cannons roared at him with his approach, but whatever hits got too close simply hit his shields. With a barrel roll to punch through the battleships shields, Falco got in nice and close to the side. As soon as he got in past it's beam cannon, it fired. The black void of space was lit up brilliantly by the spray of lasers; to his shock, he heard a yell over the comm. His radar showed Katt's fighter wink out.

But it promptly returned. "That was a close one, couldn't get behind my target in time, almost got fried! Atmospheric maneuvering thrusters are down but that won't be a problem out here."

Falco's heartbeat calmed down again. "Try to be more careful next time, will ya?"

Krystal was emotionless. She had not got in cover in time either, but used her telepathy to tap the mind of the gunner of the offending battleship. She knew exactly where the beam was going to go seconds before it fired, and had plenty of time to evade. She kept cool and flew her Cloud Runner at the side of the battleship, phasing through it's shield barrier. Her laser cannons lit up the side of the ship, causing explosions to erupt predictably ripping the outer hull to shreds. She let the first emotion through, -gratification-, as the beam cannon that attempted to fry her moments earlier burst into debris and flame. She pulled away from the ship again as it's flak cannons and laser turrets turned to shoo away her Arwing.

By then, the Cornerian ships and the Great Fox got into firing range. This is where the havoc would begin. Falco smiled at the development; three of the Venomian ships were now disarmed against capital ships, and the other two still needed 30 seconds or so to recharge. This would be butchery.

The Cornerians took the liberty of launching the opening volley. The roar of the 8 simultaneous shot more than literally shook the Venomians in their boots; the two closest ships to them were pummeled by 4 beams each, crashing their shields and tearing their hulls asunder. One of the beams even managed to pierce right through it's target and slam into the shields of the one closest to the Great Fox. The assault carrier took this opportunity to finish that ship off; it's massive disruptor cannons shattered what was left of the ships shields and pounded it's hull like Thor's hammer. The ship, while it's hull didn't buckle, drifted lifeless into space.

They were slow though; the last Venomian ship had finally appeared through the portal. This one was not a battleship at all; it was much larger, a full out fighter carrier. The 5 kilometer long beast was heading towards the Cornerian ships. Fighters poured out of it in 7 different places; on regular intervals on its port and starboard sides, and a main port in the front. None of the pilots recognized the design; it was like a long triangle, with its bridge sticking out of the top of the aft section of the ship. A -very large- gun was mounted along the bow-upper-dorsal section of the ship.

**((Authors note: No, for those thinking it is a Star Destroyer and I just ruined this with Star Wars mixture, don't worry. It's one of the carriers from Star Fox 2, if you've had the fortune of playing it you know what I mean.))**

Falco's jaw dropped. He had never seen a ship like that before; especially one that large. His Comm board lit up, it appeared to be from one of the Cornerian ships. "Commander Keegan Welsh of the _Achilles_ to Star Fox, have you seen anything like that before?"

Falco shook his head. "No, never. Can you scan it for weaknesses?"

"Already on it. We've already found it's beam cannons, damn thing has 6 of em! Keep it busy while we look for a hole in it would you?"

The blue avian nodded. "Sure, but you owe me one."

"I'm sure the General will put you in for a bonus."

"That's what I like to hear!"

The 5 Arwings dropped what they were doing with the two remaining battleships and turned towards the carrier. The 3 Cornerian Battleships, along with the Great Fox, took apart the two floating targets as they began to circle the carrier. Suddenly, the robotic face of ROB appeared on the teams comm boards. "I HAVE DETECTED A POSSIBLE WEAKNESS. THE INSIDE OF THE SHIP APPEARS TO HAVE MANY DIFFERENT PASSAGES THROUGHOUT THE SUPER SRUCTURE TO ALLOW FREE MOVEMENT OF RESISDENT FIGHTERS, AND DEEP INSIDE THE WARP CORE OF THE SHIP IS VULNERABLE."

The idea struck Skye like a freight train. "We need to go inside of that thing, don't we."

the cat gritted his teeth at the idea.

The 5 fighters breached the shield barrier of the carrier, and flew around it's deck, hitting the many flak and laser turrets that littered its hull. Falco spoke up. "Any volunteers to cut this things heart out?"

Mina smiled to herself, this sounded like it was going to be quite a bit of fun to her. "I'll do it. Cover me."

Falco nodded to himself. "Alright, good luck. Everyone else, lets kill those beam cannons."

Mina looped back out of the shield barrier to get a good straight run on the front port of the ship. Fighters had stopped pouring out of the thing, and were scrambling to bring down the Arwings that were tearing the carriers defenses apart. The Cornerian ships were heading to the portal; they were going to tear the thing apart so no more ships could get through; they would leave the destruction of the carrier to the Star Fox team.

5 fighters had broken off from the carrier to chase after Mina, knowing her intent. Skye in turn saw this and chased after them. Opening up with lasers, he managed to cut two of them down. The other three relentlessly hunted Mina's Ranger. Mina herself lined up with the pit in the front of the ship that almost seemed to her like the maw of a massive beast. Then she saw them; three fighters coming in on a head to head with her. She sprayed at them trying her best not to deviate from her course; and hit one, the other two were almost in position to fire...

Then they were vapourized, Skye flew over her as she charged into the ship. "You're all clear, good luck in there Mina." he said.

She smiled to herself. "Thanks."

**Inside the Carrier**

Mina didn't dare using the boost inside the ships superstructure; it was more than big enough for her fighter, but there were more than enough obstacles in the corridor. Walkways, small passenger transports flying about, and dangerous intersections. She didn't have time to slow down however; every second she wasted was another second for that massive gun on the front of this beastly ship to prepare to vapourize one of the Cornerian ships; and more than likely, it's first target would be the Great Fox.

The tight corridor, turning in different directions almost randomly, finally lead her to something completely different; a huge chamber that she wouldn't have believed possible for a ship of this size to contain.

It was a massive squat cylindrical chamber, which contained a huge spire in the center. In the center of the spire, what couldn't have been anything but a fusion reaction of some kind was suspended in the center. It had to have been the core. There were actually fighters patrolling around the core, and they had turned face to greet Mina's intrusion into the heart of the carrier.

She smirked, it was time for the interceptor's speed and capability in a dogfight to shine.

There were 6 fighters in total, 2 shield trios. Another one popped up on her radar at the last minute; a Wolfen came from the other side of the core.

The animal at the cockpit of the Wolfen contacted her. The voice had a long-toned accent that made him difficult to understand; but his message was perfectly clear. "My name is Baron Gaiden Jal'in. You will not leave this place alive."

She gritted her teeth; keeping her predatory smirk. This had just become far more interesting. The Wolfens 6 minions took the first attack; one of the shield trios boosted into her direction at full throttle opening up lasers wildly. Mina used the quick locking of the interceptor to fire not one, but two locked on laser bombs at two of the shield trio pilots. The resulting two explosions turned the space she flew through a bright green as she passed by it. There was nothing left of the pilots but debris.

The other three also sought to harass her; breaking off in a more loose formation to prevent the same fate befalling them as their brethren. One had the nerve to try to get a lock-on. As it was almost complete, Mina took a head-on snap shot at the offending fighter, and it blew to smithereens. The other two broke off to try to evade; but the interceptor was much too fast. One that broke off to Mina's left was caught by a shockingly quick lock-on, the laser bomb trailed it to a bright green death. The other, Mina followed as she broke off from her lock on. It juked and jinked to no avail in attempts to break off her pursuer, but she kept on him effortlessly. Strafing it with lasers, Mina was rewarded with one of her shots firing right through the fighters hull, leaving it to drift right into the wall of the huge chamber.

Then the Wolfen got it's turn. While Mina was busy with it's subordinates, the Baron had slipped in position behind Mina and began to spray lasers at her fighter; heralding a couple of near misses as she dodged the incoming fire. "Ahh, you are agile, but no match for me, a Baron!"

She snickered. "You haven't got the slightest clue what you've gotten yourself into."

It was time to put the maneuverability of the Interceptor to the test. She jammed her yoke backwards, sending her into a dizzying summersault. The G-Diffuser of the ship whined in protest as she made the ridiculous maneuver; in no more than a second and a half, she was behind the cocky Baron. She wasted no time in answering his rude laser fire; the Wolfen broke into a barrel roll, deflecting her fire, and tried to lose pursuit.

"What in ze hell?" he exclaimed.

"Show's you to dick with Star Fox... Time to say goodbye." She said with a predatory smirk.

It was common knowledge amongst Arwing and Wolfen pilots that they were vulnerable right after a complete barrel roll; the Baron tried to break a hard maneuver to the left towards the core, using it's brightness to make his escape. Unfortunately, not only did Mina's Ranger have an automatically tinting canopy shield, he had not learned yet even after her summersault that the Interceptor was vastly more maneuverable than his Wolfen. She kept pace with him effortlessly, and despite his best efforts to out maneuver his pursuer, she had a lock almost instantly. The green laser bomb slammed into the Wolfens rear shields. It continued to struggle, but Mina choked off any chance the Baron had for survival. Another lock on blew off the ships wing.

"So this is how it ends...?"

"Yep, now shut up and die."

The last hope of the Baron was sealed off with a burst of Mina's lasers. The Wolfen spun out of control and exploded; sending pieces of itself in every direction.

Her focus stuck onto the core of the carrier; she made a wide loop around the now empty chamber and sprayed lasers onto it, hoping for a reaction. She was rewarded with explosions in the spires that were holding it up. Expecting to have little time to lose, she fired back the way she came.

Fighters and transports alike darted around the corridors of the massive ship in attempts to escape; and Mina only had a vague idea of where she came from in the labyrinth of intersections and identical corridors. She began to panic, she knew time was running out by the sudden rapturous explosions from the walls every few seconds. Some corridors she was finding blocked off by fallen debris.

Then, when she had lost hope, a blue beam of light shot across her view; it was a beam cannon shot from a Cornerian battleship. A huge hole was opened in the carriers armor; and it was her chance to escape. She pulled out of the hole with her boost on full just as her peripheral vision began to be filled with a bright light. Her ship began to shake violently...

But the speed of the Interceptor had pulled through; with a blur of the surrounding debris and ships, she shot away from the explosion as it enveloped the space where the carrier had been.

As she regained her senses, she realized there were woops and cheers over the comm. Different faces flashed on her comm board with congratulations.

"Alright Mina!"

"Holy shit, that was wild!"

"Did you see that?!?"

"Damn!!"

She checked her radar quickly, breathing a sigh of relief. The Great Fox, and 4 Arwings other than herself were still active. She did however notice that one of the Cornerian battleships was gone. In its place was the wreckage of the portal. She also noticed there was a blue dot; a non combat indicator was on one of the Venomian battleships; it must have got through the portal later on in the fight and surrendered.

Once her heart rate settled down again, she decided to thank whoever made the shot that let her out of that thing. "Which ship made that beam cannon shot?"

Skye actually spoke up. "When the core began to buckle and the explosions were starting, the ships shields went down so I was able to get close enough to track you on radar. Based on your trajectory I sent targeting data to the Achilles to open a path for you. I'm glad it worked as well as I had hoped."

She smiled. 'Thank you Skye, I thought I was done for that time for sure. That's twice you've saved my life now."

Skye saw a fitting for Star Fox's famous line... "It's what I do."

She chuckled to herself. "So, what's with the guy that surrendered? I'm surprised were showing him mercy."

Captain Walsh broke in. "Their captain told us he would give us the coordinates of a secret research base if we let him live."

Falco was next. "Apparently, they were being sent to ship supplies or something... They were the only ship with the proper coordinates."

The Arwings began to head back for the Great Fox, and Krystal put her two cents in. "I don't believe it though. A portal device and a battleship to send supplies? And there wasn't even that much aboard; only about two months worth of extra supplies. I sense a trap."

"At least we know what to expect from them this time." Falco added.

**Great Fox II Medical Bay**

**10:02 PM, August 3rd**

Slippy wiped a sweat off his brow with a handkerchief he kept with some of his other tools for the surgery as he began the toughest part of the entire procedure; he had cut off and sealed the appropriate nerve endings, sealed and rewired the proper veins and arteries, and now he had to actually attach the leg and make sure he put it on properly, and making sure the neural link worked right. There was no room for error.

It was a quick process having the custom leg made; he had gone to his fathers research station in orbit of Corneria the day previous during the teams mission to Sector X to have the leg built. Beltino Toad had not only made it for free, but made sure it was made out of the lightest and toughest materials available, to make the leg an improvement rather than an impairment. All that was left was to attach it.

Slippy stopped for a minute and slipped his eyes to the pile of gore that was Fox's old leg. Snapping himself back to attention, he began the procedure. Alone, with a sedated Fox McCloud and his wife Amanda in a comatose two cots away, he began to attach Fox's new leg.

**Venom**

**Dash's Quarters; Androsia Palace**

**Meanwhile....**

Dash was lying back on his bed, after hearing the news that one of his super carriers, the _Extinguisher_, had just been butchered at the hands of Star Fox. It had been his plan to distract Star Fox with the presence of the portal AFTER he had hidden the carrier behind enemy lines, but it appears Star Wolf was attracted to the system by pure luck and exposed the portal before it's purpose could be fulfilled.

"Grandfather, our plan to get the Extinguisher behind enemy lines has failed."

_It is of no consequence. It only would have served as an distraction as well, but we have enough planned for our purpose._

"What should we use next?"

_The battleship that was sent through the portal contained the coordinates of another non essential research station. In fact, we lost contact with it before my death during the Lylat War. They will be wasting precious time investigating it while our own research is almost complete._

"The Telepath Conduit."

_Indeed. It will be the key to our victory. We do not need much more time; we need only preserve the border for a bit longer. The introduction of Star Wolf into the fray is indeed troubling; but it will delay us little. We have more than enough sources of time, even with that meddling fool in the fray._

"What still must be done in it's preparation? I was told the research was complete; we need only build it, correct?"

_We are prepared to build the conduit, yes..._

"But we still require the telepath."

**Great Fox II Medical Bay**

**10:14 PM**

The entire team was ready for a good nights sleep; the coordinates of the apparent next research station were more than a days trip away, and there was plenty of time to rest and recuperate. The fighters needed to be restocked, and Katt's fighter needed to be repaired, which Skye and Mina went ahead to do.

Slippy was finishing the last steps of the surgery; he had connected the neural uplink from his leg to the nerves in his hip properly; he would be able to control this tritanium leg like it were his old one. He traded the ability to feel with it, to being able to kick a 3" reinforced blast door down. His good old combat boots would even still fit the new foot. Slippy wasn't religious, but he hoped to god that the leg worked properly. The last thing anyone needed, especially Fox, was to wake up to the worst pain imaginable. He went over everything he did twice, and he would stake his life on it's security. He would wake up at about 9 AM the next day, and his doubts would be confirmed or rejected then, and only then.

Krystal was in the medical bay with him; her eyes scanning the new leg in sympathy. "You're sure?"

Slippy nodded. "Never been more sure of my work in my life. If this doesn't do the trick, nothing will."

She kissed the fallen Fox's cheek, and as she said often since the day he was shot... "I'm so sorry."

**The Docking Bay**

Skye, for the first time in a while, was extremely angry. The hit that Katt took almost completely ruined the powerful maneuvering thrusters he had installed in the wings of the Cats Claw, and they would probably need to be completely replaced by scratch. New parts would have to be ordered to replace the thrusters on the right wing. Thankfully, he didn't have to rewire the whole wing again.

Skye was still grumbling, and Mina put his arm around his back. "Just calm down, Skye. It's not like we have any atmospheric fighting planned for a while."

He sighed. "You never plan for a fight in a war, 99% of the time they are completely circumstantial. She will be completely unable to fly in atmosphere with this damage."

"Then we can just order the parts, and they should be ready by the time we get back from this next research station. Can have them delivered to Macbeth even, on our way back to the Patriot for our next set of orders."

"Sounds like a sound plan, I suppose."

He sighed, looking at the wing again. "I love building things from scratch; I loath repairing them. It's like repeating the same things over and over. A Rubik's cube that starts the same each time."

She looked up at the snow leopards face. "I guess we should get some sleep, huh."

"Not tired."

She smiled. "Me neither, actually. Say, you've been teaching me about mechanics, why don't I teach you something?"

Skye for a second had the wrong idea. "Uhm, what?"

"Ever wanted to learn how to use a sword?"

Skye was relieved; he took that the wrong way completely. He did in fact have a great interest in learning how to use a sword; despite how out aged they were, the technology of the day had ways of evening the odds in a fight. Some blades had electromagnetic fields that could perfectly reflect lasers, and he had seen some that had shield emitter arrays on the hilt, that could make disc-like anti-laser shields that could almost completely cover an average height man. There was also of course the fact that one simply did not survive an evisceration from a sword like you would a blaster shot; if a swordsman got in range, the blaster wielder was doomed.

"Actually, yes. I would be honored if you would teach me."

"It's settled then!"

She almost skipped a few feet ahead of him. "Training simulator room in ten minutes, I'm going to grab my swords. Dress light."

He looked at the wing of Cat's fighter and then back at Mina. "Sure."

**The Next Day**

**August 4th, 8:32 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**En Route to Secret Research Station**

**Great Fox Medical Bay**

Slippy and Krystal had both slept in the Med bay the previous night; awaiting with baited breath the awakening of their leader. Slippy's alarm on his wrist communicator went off at 8:30, they had both agreed to wake up at that time, incase Fox had awoken early.

Slippy was sitting beside Fox's cot waiting for his eyes to open. Krystal had gone off to the Galley to get some breakfast for both them and Fox when he awoke. If breakfast started to get cold before he woke up, they would use a stimulant to bring him up artificially.

It wasn't long before Krystal returned with the rest of the team in tow, most were half dressed (Katt and Falco especially) and tired from having been awoken so early, but none regretted it. They all wanted to see if Fox was alright.

Skye checked the device on his wrist for the time, the digital display told him it was 8:41 AM. "About time to get him up, I imagine."

Krystal had a tray with quite a bit of bacon and scrambled eggs waiting for Fox, as he could not be fed before the surgery. He in fact had not eaten at all since he was shot in orbit of Solar, which was two days previous. She made sure to pack quite a bit on the tray.

"Alright, lets get him up." Slippy said, pulling a needle off of his surgeon tool tray to the side of his cot. He punctured his upper arm with it, and squeezed a little of the content into his blood stream.

The vulpine's eyes finally creaked open. Krystal and Slippy were standing over him, and the rest of the team were all watching with baited breath. Slippy waved a lit flashlight across his vision back and forth once. "Fox?"

The fox groaned. "Slippy... How'd it go?"

Krystal kissed him on the cheek. "We don't know yet, any pain?"

Fox took a moment to think. "No, I feel fine."

Slippy put the flashlight to the side. "Wiggle your toes on your left leg."

They all watched the robotic toes with held breath. After a few seconds, they reacted, wiggling back and forth. Everyone in the room cheered except for Skye, who smiled.

Fox's arms slapped onto his ears. "Whoa, not so loud.." He winced with his eyes shut.

Krystal brought over a tray of food. "I bet you're hungry, bacon and eggs."

Fox realized then and there how hungry he was. "Oh, jeez. Thanks Krys." leaned up and kissed her on the cheek before sitting upright. Slippy noticed he moved his new leg perfectly fine to push himself into the upright position.

The frog was now grinning even more. "I TOLD you it would work, Krystal!"

Falco, with a grin and a yawn, said "Well, no more pressure on me. I'm going to get my own breakfast, I'll meet you guys in the galley. We hit the next research station in about three hours."

Skye spoke up. "Not so fast, Falco. Fox will still be out of action for today, getting used to his new leg. You will still be leading this mission."

He groaned, but didn't break stride. He left the medical bay, and Katt followed behind him with a giggle. The door hissed shut behind them.

**Almost Three Hours Later**

**11:12 AM**

**Unknown Sector, Great Fox Docking Bay**

There the 5 pilots were again, ready for their next trip to a research station. Falco was grumbling as he packed his rocket launcher and a blaster into his cargo hold. "This had better not be a wild goose chase again, or worse, an infested pool of mutants. I hate these damn stations. Total bull shit both times."

Krystal was packing up the same chain gun she had taken to the Solar base, it having proved itself more than worthy in point blank situations. She also kept her staff with her. "In all honesty, Falco, I look forward to another boring mission. We've had hour share of neck-on-the-line experiences for one week, I think."

Mina had her sword, and a collection of throwing weapons at her disposal hidden inside of her black long coat. Falco shot her a strange look. "What's with all of the knives? Why not just take a blaster?"

She jumped into her cockpit. "These are quieter, quicker, and cleaner. Did I mention more fun?"

Falco cocked an eyebrow at this. "Remind me never to piss you off."

She smirked as her canopy closed. "Don't ever piss me off."

Skye had brought a sword with him as well, he wasn't exactly good at it yet, but it could serve as a point defense option should the need arise. Mina had let him use a black counterpart of her own sword that she had picked up with her white one back on Macbeth; when he asked about the history of the two blades, she was hesitant to give him any details. He also took his 10MM pistol again, and a sniper rifle. All of these weapons he stored in the Assassins cargo bay before jumping in his own cockpit.

As Falco's canopy began to close, Katt made a remark at Skye while she was getting to her own fighter. "What is it with you two and old weapons?"

Skye hesitated, looking for a reason, and then it hit him. "Like she said, fun." His canopy sealed as he finished this sentence; Katt simply shrugged and got into her own fighter.

Fox and Slippy had both stayed behind again, Slippy was monitoring the performance of the new leg, and Fox was getting used to using it. The two spent almost half an hour walking to the Galley just down the hall from the med bay, thanks to Fox's clumsy attempts at walking with the metallic leg. Despite the mindset that it should work exactly the same, it didn't. It was like he was used to being able to feel the weight of his own leg when walking, but now he couldn't feel anything at all in it. It was like walking on jelly.

The ship lurched as it exited hyperspace, and ROB came over the docking bay PA system. "ALL AIRCRAFT PREPARE FOR DEPLOYMENT. DESTINATION REACHED; TARGET RESEARCH BASE IS IN SIGHT."

The red lights and blaring of the docking bay alarms sounded as the doors began their slow crawl to open, and the 5 Arwings drifted into position to fire out of them when they finally got out of the way. The view they beheld was not what they had expected at all; the station was active, as there were active lights inside, but there was no escorting ships or patrols. It was out here on it's own undefended.

Falco was uneasy. "I think it's safe to say this is a trap."

Skye rolled his eyes. "We are getting fairly proficient at dealing with these painfully numerous traps, I'm sure we will survive."

Krystal spoke with a feeling of optimism. "Perhaps it is not a trap at all, and they merely relied upon it's hidden location for defense?"

"Let's hope for a good mission and get it over with." Katt exclaimed. "For all we know, this is just a useless goose chase and Andross led us all the way out here just to stall us."

The team fell silent. Skye broke it just as the docking bay doors were finally almost open, confirming what everyone was thinking. "That actually sounds extremely probable. It would certainly make quite a lot of sense."

Mina launched first. "Then let's spring the stall and get back to Macbeth. If he lured us all the way out here, then he must be planning something in our absence. Let's make this quick."

Falco was next. "Now you're even worrying me!"

The rest of the Arwings followed suit, the five rocketing towards the station at maximum velocity. There were bits of debris of different kinds drifting about the station, which only worried the team more. Getting a close look at some of the things he was passing, Skye noticed both bits of fighters and raw rock. It made no sense, however, for raw rock to be floating out here; there was no clear asteroid field.

The docking bay of the station was covered in a stable mag-con field, allowing it to contain atmosphere. The pilots landed one at a time in the expansive bay; It was simply one large rectangular room with a single door leading out at the far end. What was in the room was a totally different matter; ships hobbled together from different designs. As Skye set his Assassin down on the deck, he recognized the base of the closest ship. It was an extremely heavily modified old Invader II fighter. He was amazed the weak ships were still even in service; he recognized some of its elements from it's prototype age in shock. This fighter belonged in a museum, not in active combat. It looked recently used, which worried him not only for himself, but the pilot of the particular fighter. The Invader II didn't even have shields.

He was also the first to jump out of his cockpit onto the cold, gray deck of the docking bay. He took a closer look at the Invader II. He could see elements from a dozen different ship types on it, what really surprised him the most amongst the modifications was a hyper laser cannon under the cockpit. When the Invader II was in service, it was even rare to see an Arwing with such a modification, let alone a workhorse Venomian fighter.

Leaving the fighter alone, Skye went back to his Arwing as the others were landing. The cargo hold of the Assassin hissed open for him with a tap of a small button on the bow, and revealed the weapons he had stashed inside of it before they left. His sword was in its scabbard on a belt, which he put on. He also grabbed his 10 mm and put it in a holster on another belt he had already been wearing, with the sniper rifle slinged over his back. He was wearing a simple black T-Shirt again, with matching black jeans and combat boots.

The rest of the team armed themselves as well and gawked at the antique fighters scattered around the deck. Falco was the first to break the relative quiet of the huge room. "What's with all of these pieces of junk?"

Katt walked by one of the fighters, she recognized it as an Invader III, of the same design as her old modified Cats Paw. She ran her paw along the hull, smiling at the memories she had with the tear drop shaped fighter. Then she noticed something at the rear of the ship...

It was warm.

She pulled up the blaster she brought to her shoulder and called out. "Everyone, this fighters engines are warm. There is someone here for sure."

Everyone else drew weapons and walked cautiously to the far door of the docking bay. Falco in the lead with his greatly overzealous rocket launcher on the shoulder of his classic red vest. "Lets search the place. Everyone stick together."

The door yielded a thin hall going left and right, predictably bordering the spherical center chamber of the station much like the last one. Falco was looking in either direction while the others were following him into the hall. "Too crowded in here. Should we split up?"

Krystal gritted her teeth. "It sounds like a bad idea at first, but none of us can really fight well in such a tight corridor when all five of us are packed in tight. It might be smart to do just that."

Falco looked at his team. "Okay then, who's going where?"

Skye nodded at the right path down the hall. "Me and Mina are probably the most experienced ground combatants amongst us, I think it would be safe to have us as the smaller team."

Falco nodded to him in turn. "Alright then it's settled. Skye and Mina go that way, Katt and Krystal you're with me."

They split ways, Mina kept her sword unsheathed at all times, Skye's pistol was at his side but not raised, he had worries about the recently used fighter; the pilot was obviously brilliant to have survived so long with such an old, outdated fighter. Considering their base was so well hidden however, he doubted that they were very competent on the ground.

Falco led the way for the two girls. he looked to Krystal. "I guess your telepathy isn't working again?"

She was looking around the tight corridor, and the dark rafters and air vents above. "Well, I can sense you, and I can actually sense a couple of life forms in the main chamber, but nothing else."

They looked to Katt, who was lagging behind them a bit. To their shock, she was gone. Falco ran back a few paces. "Katt?! Katt where the hell are you?!"

Krystal got very worried. "I can't sense her anywhere!"

Falco shouldered his rocket launcher forward. "Oh crap, this doesn't look good."

Krystal turned for another second looking to the front of her, and she heard a quick _thump_ from behind her. She shot back in Falco's direction; he could see a blur of black, but nothing else. "Falco!" she screamed in terror.

Then she sensed something; it was so faint, but it was right behind her. She instinctively pulled out her staff and swung it behind her; she hit something, and it was definitely flesh. Before she could see what it was, it was gone again. There were several drops of blood on the floor; she must have opened a cut with the brunt force of the staff.

"Have to find Mina and Skye, quickly!"

Meanwhile Mina and Skye were still undisturbed, Skye decided to check in with the others. "Falco, you guys alright still?"

Krystal came on instead. "They're gone, Falco and Katt are gone!"

Skye and Mina both dropped their jaws. "What?!" they shouted in unison.

"There's no bodies so they must have took them prisoner, or worse. We need to find them!"

Skye was checking around him for possible hostiles. "50 credits say they're in the main chamber. We'll hold here so you can catch up-"

He was interrupted by a figure falling out of the roof in front of them. Both cat's whipped out their swords, and the more experienced Mina took the first strike.

As the figure moved to block with a pole like weapon, it's looks became more clear. As it blocked Mina's vertical slash, Skye got a quick look at it; it was a canine of some kind, most likely a wolf, but it's fur was a very light blue, almost white. It held a staff in its paws very much like Krystal's; and he noticed it was she; a very stunning she. She was wearing a black sleeveless wool vest that was zipped all the way up to her chin, with simple blue jeans. The staff she carried was black, instead of Krystal's golden. Skye decided to worry about her Cerinian ancestry later; first he needed to stop her goal of killing them both.

Surprisingly, their mysterious attacker threw off Mina's strike, sending her backwards. The wolf spun around extremely quick and moved in for a stab, but her staff was pushed off course by a quick strike of Skye's blade. The wolf jumped back as Mina and Skye properly got into a fighting stance.

The wolf, obviously confident, held her staff horizontally behind her, and gestured for them to make the first attack. Both cats took the opportunity with indifference to the danger, charging at the wolf. She stepped back to get a better feel of what their attacks were going to be.

Before Skye leaped in to get his strike, Mina stopped, and pulled a thick black throwing star out of her jacket and threw it almost in an instant. The wolf moved almost beyond the limits of time; striking the star off course and then keeping the staff spinning, knocking Skye's blade clean out of his hands.

Skye leaped back in prediction of the counter attack; which came promptly. A cross slash from the wolfs staff was met with Mina's sword in a counter. He spotted his sword behind the wolf, leaving him weaponless against it; he would never get a clear shot with his pistol in this tight corridor. He would have to wait and see what happened, to his disgust.

It was then that a second blue blur entered the fray. Krystal had her staff out and was running full on. Mina took two more slashes at the wolf, each were thrown out of the way by the furious staff of their attacker. Krystal leaped clean over both combatants in a front flip and stabbed her staff backwards, the wolf expertly dodging to one side.

The next situation, there was no way for the wolf to escape; she had put herself into a checkmate. Krystal spun her staff the other way around and caught the wolf in the side, sending her sprawling into the wall. Mina moved in for the last blow, but the wolfs staff was in the way. When her blade made the staff flinch still for the block, Mina grabbed the black shaft to keep it still. The enraged cat kicked the wolf as hard as she could in her gut. She doubled over in pain, surrendered to the two ferocious members of Star Fox.

Krystal was in bewilderment, seeing a member of her species; her eyes were wide with shock, and her paw in front of her muzzle. Mina decided to ask the questions. "You need to answer a few questions for us, I imagine."

Suddenly Krystal could sense the wolf, the only emotion she could feel was annoyance. The wolf reached out her hand, shaking her head. Mina looked confused, but Krystal clarified. "She wants to access your memories so she can learn our language; same as I did with Fox."

She nodded, allowing the wolf to press her hand on Mina's skull. A strange blue aura almost seemed to flow from Mina to the wolf. Krystal was still in amazement. "I... I can't believe it... Survivors."

When the wolf was finished, she took her paw off of Mina's head. She finally spoke. "My name is Dawn." She spoke with an accent much like Krystal's, but even less effected by spending time in the Lylat system.

Mina sat down in front of the wolf. "Mines Mina, nice to meet you. Now, why the hell did you attack us?"

"I am defending my home. We were brought here by force many years ago by the invaders that ruined our planet, and cruel tests were conducted on us. We rebelled, and now we use this as our home, getting what supplies we must from nearby cargo ship hyperspace paths."

Skye had walked over, his sword back in it's sheath. "Now, where is our friends. The bird and the pink cat."

"They are being held captive in the main chamber. Come with me."

Mina and Krystal followed them without words, but Skye took a different path; if they were being led into a trap, which they most likely were, Skye would need to be in a position to rescue them. He jumped up into the rafters of the facility; he could feel Krystal interfering with his mind. He assumed she understood and was blocking out his mental signal; which would only work more to his advantage.

Krystal was awed by what she saw in the giant semi-spherical room. She had only expected 5 or 6 Cerinians there; but it was a whole fledging community. Dawn introduced them to it. "As I said, we have lived here for many years. We used the ships that were originally docked here to... fetch... supplies."

It was like a large shanty town in the massive chamber; different scraps of metal and crates used to build makeshift homes. It looked like poverty; but due to the expertly done modifications to the fighters in the hangar; they must have been living quite well.

Krystal's eyes were darting around wildly. "This.. This is incredible! I thought I was the last Cerinian left alive! Wait 'till Fox sees this..."

Dawn cut her off. "Our very survival depends on our secrecy here; I would wish that you tell no one of our presence here, we only permit your survival due to your relation to us, sister Krystal."

The largest shanty house was in the center of the chamber, amongst the wrecked pedestals of former containment tubes. A huge light blue bear exited the room; he was the only Cerinian walking around the town that was in ceremonial dress; which was for men, only the classic Cerinian loincloth. The bear had a rather dark blue fur instead of the light that was characteristic of most Cerinians; and held a much longer staff than anyone else. The crystal on it's head was much brighter and larger than any others. His look commanded respect, and the two Star Fox members gave it.

The bear spoke to them, his voice deep and commanding. "Dawn, who have you brought before me?"

"Allow me to introduce Mina, and Krystal. They have bested me in combat; and I had brought them here. They are members of the legendary mercenary unit, Star Fox, that we have heard of in recent months. Their intentions are pure, I assure you, my lord."

The bear walked up to them, and Krystal bent on one knee. Unsure of Cerinian traditions, Mina did the same. He planted a paw on each of their heads, and the same blue aura that Dawn had extracted from Mina was now flowing from them.

Skye was watching from an air vent 30 feet above the conversation in total darkness. His silenced pistol at the ready; so far the situation didn't look hostile, but he couldn't be sure. Suddenly he heard a voice in his head; it was Krystal's. _"You can come down now."_

Trusting his team mate, he let his feet slide first out of the vent, and his cat legs took the shock of the long fall. All of the Cerinians in the room shot surprised looks at his direction; none having been able to sense his presence, which surprised even him. Even the bear looked surprised.

The great bear looked suspiciously at Krystal. "You are indeed powerful to have hidden him from my telepathy so well; I congratulate you."

She smiled. "I try to keep my telepathy honed and sharp, it has proven a valuable ally in the harsh environments of combat."

Mina interrupted. "Now, where is our friends?"

The bear reared his head in respect to the young girls ferocity. "They are safe and unharmed. You will be allowed to leave once you answer my question; what was your aim in coming here?"

Krystal took the liberty of answering. "There is an opposing force to peace in Lylat, and they have been conducting cruel research in bases not unlike this one. We came to investigate any clues as to what they were working on, and cease all experiments. We would be humbled if you could give us access to the stations database; we require the locations of any similar bases."

"Ahh, they are indeed honest." he said. It was obvious he had already extracted the answer from their minds, he must have only been checking whether their intent was truly sound. "Very well, I will have the data transferred to your Great Fox. Oh, and one more matter to discuss..."

He gestured to a guard with his great paw, Krystal assumed that he had sent a message through his mind, because he ran off to grab something inside the bears home. He came out a few seconds later, holding a much more extravagant staff than her own; the end around the crystal was bladed, and the entire shaft featured beautifully carved writing in Cerinian. He held it out to Krystal.

She took it in her hands in awe as the bear spoke. "You, in the absence of your kind, have valiantly fought for the peace and prosperity for all; and this honor has been long earned, but to our shame, never rewarded. I hereby bestow upon you, Krystal, the staff of the Warrior, to replace your old initiates staff."

She gawked at it. "... Thank you, thank you so much!" She couldn't believe it; the staff was gorgeous. The bear looked at her again, with a look of pride. "I think your experiences more than make up for the trials of the warrior. Remember that you will always have a home here."

Two Cerinian guards carried out Falco and Katt from behind the bears home, they were both unconscious. Krystal opted to carry Katt, while Skye nearly threw Falco over his shoulder. Before they made their leave, Krystal stopped and turned to the bear again. "If I may ask, is there anything we can do to help the colony here? I mean, it is very overwhelming to see the last remnants of my people here. I would be honored to help the colony flourish."

The bear smiled. "You are indeed noble, but we live well here. You would do us the greatest favour of all only to mention our presence to the members of your Star Fox; and none else."

She nodded, carrying Katt bridal style towards the exit of the mechanical shanty village. "Very well. Goodbye, and thank you!"

**An Hour Later**

**The Great Fox's Galley**

Krystal had her staff lying on the table, and she looked at it as though it were a sacred icon of her people, still unbelieving the events of that day. She stared at it even as she ate one of the hamburgers she had made, Fox was sitting across from her, and she had just finished telling him the tale of the Cerinians they had found.

He had been in shock the whole time. "A whole colony of Cerinians.. Now I definitely wish I came along! Is Katt and Falco alright?"

She giggled. "Yes, they will be alright, they're just in their room resting now."

He laid his head back, setting his burger down on his plate. "It's funny calling it "their room" now, I never would have expected Falco to finally break."

She giggled again. "He was stubborn with her in the past?"

He looked at her in bewilderment. "Oh wow, I never told you about them?"

"No, I never knew about their previous relationship."

Fox crossed his arms on the table and told her the tale of how they had met as members of the Hot Rodders, and how she was always on his tail. How Katt originally became a pilot just to be with him, and how he always shunned her off. Krystal began to understand for the first time how incredibly more stubborn Falco was than she originally predicted. The two talked for hours about their past, Krystal explained to Fox the significance of the warriors staff in Cerinian folklore.

Meanwhile, Skye sat alone in his quarters, with a picture of his lost sister Janice in his paws. He was repeatedly stunned by how similarly she looked to Mina, and it hurt him every time he looked at either the photo, or Mina. She even kept her hair the same way; that long braided ponytail. Mina was Janice without the spots.

Despite his best efforts, a tear fell from his eye and struck the glass of the photo cover, and almost in unison, the door to his quarters hissed open. Mina stood in the doorway.

"All right in here Skye?"

He couldn't really speak, but didn't want her to leave. "I just.."

She came in and sat on his bed beside him. "It was nothing to be ashamed of back there, you know."

He put the picture back on it's place on his end table. "Just one mistake, all it took to see her dead."

Mina noticed the picture, and realized he misunderstood. "I meant the sword fight on the station, actually."

He finally snapped out of his stupor, and looked her in the eyes. "Oh, that. Right."

"You still miss her don't you?"

"Like the sunrise. I almost let it past me, but then I met you..."

"Skye, I'm not your sister, and there's nothing I can do to change myself."

"I know. It's just, when I saw the carrier exploding with you still inside it, I almost lost it. I did the most suicidal maneuver right in front of a beam cannon just to see you safely out of the wreckage; it felt like those last moments on the run from the military snipers all over again."

She wrapped her arm around his back. "Well, I know what I can do to remind you I'm not your sister."

He looked at the wall at the other side of the room, regaining his professional tone. "It isn't necessary."

Completely ignoring him, she turned him around and kissed him full on the lips. He hesitated at first, but melted into it naturally in the following seconds. He broke it long enough to get a word in. "Mina... What..?"

"No, no words."

**((Authors Notes: YESSS broke the 10k mark! Muahaha! By the way, if I have contradicted myself anywhere in the story so far, PLEASE tell me as soon as possible so I can go back and fix it! It was a long break between chapters 7 and 8, and there is a good chance I've made a fatal mistake and missed it. Thanks everyone for your support!))**


	11. Chapter 10: Dealing with the Dark

**Chapter 10**

**Dealing with the Dark**

**Great Fox II, Fox's Quarters**

**August 5th, 9:10 AM, Lylat Standard Time**

_"Oh sweet good lord in heaven" _Fox thought to himself; for two days he had been safe from the accursed beeps. Two days where the idea of peace was nearly assured; the vulpine had at last believed he had conquered the mind busting sound. Without the pouncing of a prepared predator, he shuffled off of his bed. Despite his stupor-like state he realized a couple of irregularities. One, the blue angel wasn't beside him this time, and he couldn't feel his left leg.

He didn't care though, hobbling over to the far wall, the source of the beeping, he hoofed his imaginary left leg at it with all the strength he could muster; and to his surprise, there was an impact.

His mind at last began to become aware of what was going on. He did indeed have a left leg; the artificial one that Slippy had built for him only the day before. Only now, it was lodged in a sizeable dent in the thick metal wall in front of him. His confusion on how he pulled off such a strike was over lapped by his sleepiness. It took a bit of effort to pry his leg out of the wall, and he grumbled to himself. Idiot him had gone and tried to kill the communication alarm a third time.

"What is it, ROB."

His blue angel's voice emanated from the wall instead. "Actually it's Krystal, love. I think you should come down to the docking bay."

It was then he remembered; it was August 5th, his thirty fifth birthday. He grinned to himself, walking over to his closet to get some clothes on; he wasn't going to present himself to his crew in his boxers. "I'll be down in a minute, Krys, just let me get dressed."

He got on some decent casual wear; a black long sleeved T shirt and blue jeans, he wore the classic belt given to all Star Fox members, featuring three interlocking golden triangles. He also thought it was fitting to wear the previous years birthday present, his combat boots.

With a jog to wake him up, he hauled ass to the docking bay. His curiosity got the better of him; most of his instincts said it had something to do with his Arwing, which both delighted him and worried him at the same time. He liked his Arwing just the way it was.

**The Docking Bay**

All of the members of the team were waiting around Fox's Arwing in the bay; Skye was sitting on the wing with his laptop, he had uploaded the data from the ships security and was tracking Fox all the way to the elevator that would bring him down to the bay. Krystal was almost giddy, she liked Fox's birthday almost more than her own, mostly because it was extremely gratifying shocking him in one way or another. Eventually the novelty would die down; but not until she had lots of fun with it.

Skye smirked. "Target has entered the elevator."

Krystal grinned in turn. "Lights!"

**Main Elevator**

Fox leaned against the side of the large circular elevator as it descended into the docking bay. Suddenly, with a snap, the elevator turned pitch black, but kept moving. His heart rate quickened.

"ROB? What just happened?"

No response. "Team, come in. Fox to anyone that can hear this!"

It was then he started to get really worried; the lights were directly infused with the life support. He may have begun running out of Oxygen soon; he would have to conserve. It was then however that the elevator stopped, and he heard the door slide open at the far end of the room. He had reached the docking bay, but it was still pitch black. There was no light at all.

He stumbled cautiously out of the elevator, careful not to trip over any crates or wires.  
"Krystal? Anyone there?!" He went by pure memory towards his Arwing; maybe he could use its comm system to contact someone.

Suddenly the lights came on, not only were his eyes overwhelmed by the sudden light, his ears exploded with a big cheer in unison...

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOX!!!" The cheer knocked him right over onto his ass.

He was dumbstruck. How could he have been so retarded? The entire team stood before him, even ROB had his robotic arms in the air. Katt was holding a big chocolate cake, and Krystal, a cylindrical gift wrapped object. The team was all clapping, Falco, Skye and Slippy all had tears in their eyes laughing, Falco had almost fallen over.

"Whoa, Thanks everyone!" He stood up and walked towards them, Falco was the first to slap his back in congratulations. "Live the most suicidal life possible and you lasted thirty five years."

He grinned, realizing just how much of a feat that was. He had his life on the line hundreds of times starting when he was but 18 years old during the Lylat War, and he was still standing. Krystal walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek, handing him the long cylindrical package. "Here Fox, enjoy!"

He wasted no time tearing the wrapping off; and he was absolutely stunned. Inside the package was a staff; even more brilliant than Krystal's old one which he had become so accustomed to on Sauria. The shaft was a deep blue, with symbols and ancient writing delicately carved all along from foot to toe. The head was particularly interesting; a sparkling white gem was at the top, much like Krystal's own, but a silver blade enveloped it all around, closing to a point at the tip like a thick spearhead. Golden metal strings of what looked like tied leaves spiraled from the base of the crystal down to about 4 inches down the shaft. At the foot of the staff, there was a beautiful golden representation of an Arwing, with the nose and each wing with sharpened ends. He tried bending the tail piece to no avail; it looked like genuine gold, but was certainly not, it was actually extremely hard.

Krystal explained. "In Cerinian culture, it is customary for the woman of a relationship to craft a tool that best fit the males trade, in your case, I thought it would be fitting to make you your own staff considering how effective you used it all those years ago on Sauria. Do you like it?"

He was stunned. "I... I love it!!!" he swung it, and it extended at his will. He took a couple of steps back from Krystal, and exercised some of the tactics he could remember when he still used the weapon so long ago. He tried spinning it through the air, and almost dropped it. Krystal giggled at his attempts. "You'll get used to it."

He was confused. "Your staff it was almost easier, as if it was guiding my movements."

She explained that as well. "You see, the crystal is a very special material, you can interact with it with your own mind; as my staff taught you how to fight. The trick is, your staff doesn't know how to fight yet; you need to teach it what you want it to know."

Skye was watching the crystal with a great amount of interest. "Now that is indeed impressive."

He folded his laptop and walked over to Fox's side. "If you are ready Fox, a second present, one from me and Slippy."

He stopped swinging his new weapon, and with a will, it contracted again. He held it in his paw, not having a holster for it. "Oh, really?"

He nodded. "It may not be so thought out as that incredible staff, but we figured you would appreciate it all the same." He turned to Fox's Arwing. "Notice anything different about your ship?"

Fox looked long and hard, but no, he could not. "What'd you do to it?"

Skye smiled, two words were all that were needed to explain the upgrade. "Hyper lasers."

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" He yelled, almost dropping his staff. He ran up to his Arwing and observed the cannons that were now mounted underneath the wings. "Yes... YES!!" He spun on his heel and looked to Skye and Slippy, who were both smirking. "I... I love them!"

Slippy laughed aloud, and his reaction also pulled a smirk from Fox. "We thought you would. I knew you said you didn't like plasma shots, so we thought of a way to increase your firepower without going to that extent...

Skye finished. "So we discovered a way for your ship to permanently be able to supply power to hyper lasers. You will never have to worry about power reserves using them like you used to."

Fox spun around again to look at his Arwing. "Oh god, thanks guys! This is awesome!" The Arwing had originally been designed to attract access compatible energy left from explosions to temporarily upgrade the lasers; and at a rare occasion it was enough to bring his lasers temporarily to hyper mode, and what an amazing feeling it was having the punch to tear battleship armor asunder with a primary weapon. Fox was giddy; all previous feelings of shock and fatigue were completely obliterated. Fox truly felt sorry for the guy under his guns; no matter what size of ship they were riding.

Skye patted him on the shoulder. "You deserve it. If we actually kept a running tally of your kill count; who would argue you were to have access to the best of weaponry? Besides, the schematics for the permanent hyper lasers should bring in a bit of extra income, should the Cornerian High Command take the bait."

Katt interrupted the soiree; "Now let's have some cake! We have plenty of time to relax before we hit Macbeth, let's use it!"

**Aboard the Executor**

**Wolf O'Donnell's Quarters**

**10:13 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**11:53 PM Kew Time**

Wolf O'Donnell sat back on the luxurious black leather couch in the middle of his room aboard the Executor; the room was like a quarter-pipe, the curved end one large window with a commanding view of the purple industrialized planet below. As he looked at the slowly rotating ball he considered whether he was in a hurry to complete his next objective.

A black furred fox named Jim Draigan resided in the Ace of Hearts night club down on the surface. This particular fox was one of Wolf's main sources of income and resources, through either trade or jobs. Jim always needed something done, be it an assassination or a cargo ship escort, and he knew damn well that Wolf was the best man for the job. They were the best pilots in the system before Star Fox, and unlike them, Wolf asked no questions about the morality of his target. He got the job done, no matter how dirty.

He was going to ask for a job that Kewian night; one that he would be rewarded with a new base of operations. Draigan had owed him a few favours, on top of an extra mean job for free, he was sure he could get the location of one of his spent hideaways or mining operations. It was through this same fashion twenty years prior that had got him the Sargasso station in the asteroid belt.

He decided now was a good time; he was freshly showered, and the club would just be getting to its busiest hour; it was almost midnight down on Kew. Wolf was shirtless at the moment, wearing naught but a pair of blue jeans and black boots. He wandered over to his closet and pulled out a black leather jacket. He didn't bother with an under shirt, he was a killer, not a businessman. Jim knew this and wouldn't care; anyone who did could go to hell for all Wolf cared.

He wanted the excuse to kill someone tonight anyway; wipe off the reputation for good he had earned driving off the Venomians. Catching someone staring at him the wrong way was the perfect guise for such an act.

As an extra tool of intimidation, he picked up a bullet-fed high caliber pistol that had been laying on the end table next to the door on his way out. Bullet weapons were infamously brutal, and a symbol of brutality. However sometimes Special Forces officers were allowed to use them; it's kinda hard to silence a laser, not to mention hide it.

Beside the gun was a belt, he slid it on quickly and tucked the pistol in the attached holster. Out of his pocket on the way out the door came his eye piece, which he fit comfortably above his ear. It clicked into place on his fur, and his left eye was gifted with the high detailed HUD he had become so fond of.

As he walked down the main corridor of the cruiser, he slammed a fist on one of the doors he passed. It slid for him automatically, and he shook his head at what he saw. Panther told him he planned on going with Wolf down to the night club; but it appeared that Panther had a rather heated date with one of the girls down in engineering instead. Panther looked up over the brim of his couch at him with his eyes wide open, various articles of clothing and underwear (male and female) were strewn about. A female voice came up. "Panther honey, what's wrong?"

Wolf just backed off and let the door slide shut. The cat could stay in there for all Wolf gave a damn.

He amused himself with his HUD while he walked towards the fighter bay. One of the medic girls was walking towards him going the opposite direction, and as Wolf looked at her, the HUD began to churn out information.

_Name: Melissa Hunt_

_Race: Mouse, brown_

_Age: 25_

_Height: 5'6_

_Status: Nurse aboard the SWS(Star Wolf's Ship) Executor_

_Breast Size: 42D_

_Hostility: Green_

He grinned to himself; the breast size indication was a modification he had made personally by one of the engineers in his hire. She winked at him as she passed. Finally coming up to the docking bay, the doors hissed open for him automatically giving him way to his fighter. He had alerted the docking bay engineers to have the fighter warmed up for him; and as always his orders were followed to the letter.

The canopy of the Wolfen was already open for him, gesturing for him to leap into the pilots couch. He felt at home no where more than his cockpit; the only one that sat in this seat was him; and as long as he was at its controls, there was no where in the galaxy safer. The canopy quickly descended and sealed as the Wolfen hovered over the docking bay deck; and he drifted safely out of the ships mag-con field before jamming his thrusters to full.

Maneuvering past docked ships all about the Orbital Docking Station, he made his way down into the atmosphere of the planet. The Ace of Hearts night club had a landing pad on it's roof that was reserved for "VIP" visitors, such as the Wolfens of him and his team.

It wasn't long before he was powering down his engines on the roof of the large building; it was bigger than most night clubs, the primary reason was that it also doubled as Draigans downtown estate, 16 car garage and goon barracks. The building and it's premises took up an entire city block all on it's own.

Two black suit clad guards awaited him on the roof, a white feathered duck and a grey furred raccoon. They lead him down into the door leading down into the building without a word; they knew by now who Wolf was, and knew he was cleared for business with their boss.

The staircase lead right to Draigans office. It was a small room, but was quite luxurious; rare potted plants were scattered around the edge of the room, pictures of both himself and gorgeous swim suit models (and no suit models) were all over the walls, and there sat Jim Draigan behind a dark wooded desk, his laptop and stacks of credit chips and papers strewn about it. Two more black clad guards were to either side of him, both carrying sub-machine laser pistols in loose grips, flanking their rich boss. The black furred fox was dressed in an extravagant house coat, purple with a golden trim. It appeared to be made out of a lustrous silk. His all business voice broke over the sounds of Wolfs escorts leaving the room.

He stood up. "Ahh, Wolf O'Donnell, it has been some time. To what do I owe this pleasure?" He stuck out his paw beckoning Wolf to shake it. He complied, and Wolf showed as he usually did who had the tougher handshake. As he sat, Draigan gestured towards a black leather seat just in front of his own desk. "Please, have a seat."

He did, crossing his arms. "I can imagine you know why I'm here, Jim."

He smiled. "Right you are, it's my business to know these things after all. You are here because you require a new base, something happened to good old Sargasso. You wish to exchange a few favours in for a new location."

Wolf decided to put his knowledge to the test. "Can you guess what happened that drove us out?"

He rested his chin on his paws, elbows on his desk. "Well, I imagine it wasn't because you had gotten tired of the place. You must have been driven out. Also, I imagine not only would you have easily countered a ship based assault, I can only surmise that you and your gang were driven out of the premises from a large barrage of missiles from none other than the Venomians. Knowing that you were assigned the task of killing Star Fox, and that you obviously failed due to the fact they are still alive, he wished to make an example of you."

Wolf clapped. "Very good, Jim. You always were a quick thinker."

He pointed his palms up in a gesture of modest acceptance. "I simply used the facts that were on hand to me. If it was a mercenary attack, I would have heard about it. That left the Venomians, and there are only so many reasons they would want to kill off a mercenary group so willing to take on their insane contracts."

"Anyway, the reason I'm here?"

"Right, down to business as always." With a few key taps, he turned the screen of his laptop to face Wolf. What he saw was a picture of a dilapidated research station, it looked almost like the one that he had been sent to defend from Fox's gang of merry men not a week earlier. "What you see here is the home of some very troublesome pests; they have been raiding my supply shipments, stealing cargo and making off with it. The most interesting part, is they only took basic rations like food or raw materials, ignoring their value. They have never tried to sell any of the stolen goods off, either, or I would have learned of it. I don't know what it is with these pirates, but I want you to find them, and take care of the problem."

"Whacking a gang of upstart pirates, sounds like a breeze; and the reward?" Wolf asked with a furrowed eyebrow.

"I happen to know of a location that would fit your purposes excellently. Out of the way, well hidden, unsuspecting and best of all, plenty of room for cruisers and cargo ships, of which a few you seem to have acquired. I cannot give you any more details on the location until you complete your task, unfortunately."

"Fine by me." Wolf stood up to go, and Draigan called out to him as he walked out the door. "I have sent the coordinates to the Executors main computer already!" No more words were required; Star Wolf was on a contract, and he had all of the information he needed. It was game time.

**Cerinian Colony Station**

**8 Hours Later, 6:46 PM Lylat standard Time**

The Executor dropped out of hyperspace only two kilometers out from their target station; Wolf had only a vague idea of what to expect from their targets. He knew they were fighter pilots, and he knew they were pirates. He didn't know what mercenary group was responsible, how good they were, what they flew and why they only took tangible goods. Draigan would have told him everything he knows; Wolf could see no reason for him to back out information on the matter. If Jim Draigan didn't know anything about the targets, then no one did. That made the situation that much more dangerous.

It also made the situation all the more fun.

What surprised him the most about it, is that no fighters jumped out to greet the four Wolfens and the cruiser as they shot out of the Executors hangar. It was a ghost station; or so it seemed. He wasn't ready to believe that quite yet. "Guys getting anything on radar?"

Ben sounded annoyed. "Nope, nothin. This had better be for real, 8 hour trip for nothing? Damn."

Panther seemed more optimistic. "Perhaps they have simply failed to detect us yet?"

Bryce answered that for him. "I doubt that, they were tracking cargo ships as far as 10 hours in warp from here. They have to have some mean sensors or another on that wreck."

Wolf was zooming to the docking bay he say protruding out of the side of the disc-like station. "He's got a point. Let's get in there and see what the deal is; keep your guns ready."

They landed not two minutes later in the run down docking bay. Wolf looked left and right jumping out of the cockpit, the ships he saw could only be described as dilapidated wrecks. He could almost recognize some of the ships from the Lylat War, but they were covered in modifications of differing age; parts as new as the Arwing II blaster mount to the old Invader I cockpits.

Something definitely wasn't right about his surroundings; these ships have obviously been active if they had been attacking Jim's convoys, but the station appeared abandoned, and some of these ships were decades old, minus the new parts. There was obviously someone based here, but Wolf began to wonder as he wandered about the docking bay; was anyone home?

He was wearing a simple microphone equipped headset that was tuned to their team frequency, he made sure each of his pilots was wearing one before they left. He hit a button on the ear piece as he wandered about the expansive chamber. "You guys spot anything?"

He heard four "Nothings". "Alright then, lets search deeper in. Arm yourselves and follow me." The four headed single file into the hallway just off of the docking bay.

The team was aptly armed; Wolf had one blaster in his paws and another in a holster on his belt, a combat knife was sticking out a holster on his boot. He also had his heavy pistol in the other side of his belt. Bryce barely armed himself; he didn't even have a shirt on. He had a spread blaster hanging loosely off his side via a strap that was the only thing protecting his chest. His fists were more than lethal weapons in a close quarters situation, the shotgun was for when the bastards just weren't close enough. Ben was lugging around a repeater blaster, a heavy handheld machine gun. It was the biggest you could get before just switching to a handle like a chain gun, Bens was more like an assault rifle. Panther had a weapon that Wolf had always wondered about; an old crossbow. The highest technology it boasted was the scope on top and the mechanized loading that allowed nearly semi-automatic fire. A well organized quiver on his back held several kinds of bolts; from tranquilizer, to deadly poisons, to explosives. He also had a blaster for point blank encounters strapped to a holster on the side of his vest.

Entering the dark hallway, Wolf looked both ways. "Alright, Ben you're with me, Panther and Bryce go right."

They complied without a word. "If you spot anything, call it, and don't you hesitate."

Still no words, Wolf wandered with Ben close behind him. Having a bad feeling about the situation, Wolf drew out his other blaster, holding them loosely pointed at the floor as he walked. He examined the roofs and doors he passed; it was extremely similar to the place he had to guard on Solar, and he remembered walking through these halls past the active Venomian scientists, walking them straight to their deaths by deactivating the containment field on the mutants with a code that Dash had given him.

Panther and Bryce kept close, with Bryce ahead. They paid careful attention to their surroundings, looking for the entrance to the center chamber. That was when Panther spotted it; a black blur faster than anything he had ever seen. "Hostile here, engaging."

Panther had his crossbow already loaded with a tranquilizer bolt, Bryce pulled his blaster out with one hand and was scanning the roofs. "Quick bugger, where'd he go?!"

His question was answered as the figure dropped from the roof right behind Bryce, striking him over the head with a long shaft of some sort. Panther cursed at not having a clear shot; based on how quick the figure moved, it would dodge the arrow he fired at it, and it would hit Bryce.

Bryce reacted with the impact in a different way than his attacker expected entirely; rather than drop unconscious, he swung around and managed to get a grip on the assailant. He got a good look at it; it was a male raccoon in a brown leather jacket with black jeans; what was strange about him, is that his fur was a dark blue.

Instead of giving up at the vice like grip of Bryce, he swung his staff towards the brute, and a pulse of red energy took him right in the chest. The gator leaped back in a fury, screaming in pain; but this was the chance Panther had been waiting for. The tranquilized bolt punched into the raccoons skin like a pin in a drywall surface, and after two seconds flat of it struggling to reach Panther, he dropped like a sack of potatoes. Bryce was sitting against the far wall of the hall, clutching his chest, wincing in agony. As Panther rushed to his assistance, he amazingly stood back up.

"Just a burn" he coughed.

Panther was looking up at the tall gator in amazement. "My oh my, you are a tough bastard aren't you."

Coughing, Bryce smiled. He crouched beside the offending raccoon, who had an arrow sticking out of his arm, limp as a corpse. "Now what the fuck is with this thing?"

Panther was amazed. "He is of a former team member of ours' race; a series of telepaths known as Cerinians. Amazing creatures; now I am truly curious as to how many are here."

It was as they had this chat that 4 more attackers silently crept up behind them, and with an impact to Panthers skull and 3 to Bryce's, they both dropped limp with little incident.

Wolf and Ben had been running back to Panther and Bryce's position, when they got where they had received their last transmission, there was nothing. Wolf noticed blood on the outer wall. "Well, fuck."

Ben was facing at Wolf's back. "Now what the fuck do we do? These guys must be like fucking ninjas."

Wolf gestured for him to follow, facing back forward again. "Entrance to the center chamber's near by, we'll find em."

He started walking, but there were no footsteps following him. Wolf gritted his teeth, whipping around and looking behind him, and there was nothing. Not even Ben."

Wolf pointed his blasters in either direction, yelling at the top of his lungs. "What in the HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?!"

That was when he felt an impact from above, and he was unconscious.

**Unknown Amount of Time Later**

Wolf felt excessively groggy as he awoke; his head was sore as hell. The only thing on his mind was to find the bastard that hit him and rip his spine out, and beat his friends to death with it. As he regained his senses he realized that they probably kept him prisoner if he was still alive, and that search might have already been over.

His eyes cranked open, and what he saw drained the will to rip spines out of him immediately. A gorgeous light blue furred wolf sat on a bench across from prison bars in between them, she was wearing a black sleeveless wool turtleneck and green camo pants. A black staff leaned against the wall. She spoke to him in an accent not unlike Krystal's. "You're finally awake, Wolf O'Donnell."

He smirked, ignoring his headache. "Heh, so they know my name way out here in the outer rim too?"

She gave him a look of disgust. "No, actually, I pulled it right out of your mind. Knowing Krystal, you should have realized this."

His mind was spinning; did she read his entire mind while he was out? "Find anything you like?"

"I found out that you willingly sacrificed your home allowing Star Fox to crush you at Solar, out of a respect for Fox McCloud, and that act alone is the reason we didn't string you up on public display."

"Heh, lucky me. My team mates?"

She crossed her arms. "Still out, in separate cells, obviously."

"Heh..."

He sat up, looking at her with a pained, tired look on his face. There was no point in him lying or pretending to be in the upper hand in this situation, she had his entire mind laid out before her like a map. "So, what's the deal?"

She stood up and walked over to him. She unlocked his cage, and sat in there with him. He tried to shuffle, but his paws were bound, he decided it was an idiotic idea anyway. "We are going to give you a job. We need a steady source of supplies in a non hostile manner, and we want to find your Jim Draigan and offer our services as mercenaries and escorts in exchange for material goods we can use to flourish our little colony here."

He scoffed. "One, I don't get a new base that way. Two, he's more likely to have your head on a silver platter, not to mention mine, than deal with the pirates he sent me to butcher. Lastly, I don't know what's possessed you to think I'm going to turn around and work for the idiots that half brained me and threw me in a cell!"

Ignoring his tangent, she smirked at him. "In exchange, we will extract the location of the new base for you straight from his mind, and wipe any reminder of its existence from his memory."

The idea was stunning, he was actually intrigued by the deal. "Huh. Alright, what should I tell old Jimmy?"

"That little detail won't be a problem, I will be coming with you. We just need you to vouch for me."

He liked this deal a lot, despite the honor it cost him. He would be making an even stronger ally than Draigan, and getting the base, all for extremely cheap as far as labor went. He remembered the Executor in orbit. "Has my ship been informed of my status?"

"No, but it has only been two hours, and it remains in orbit of the station waiting faithfully."

"Fine, I'll do it."

She stuck out her paw, and he felt the shackles holding his paws together click loose. "Name's Dawn, pleasure to do business." Wolf felt exhilarated, as though a more passive kind of adrenaline had just poured through him. He could stand all of the sudden, and his headache was gone. He took her paw and shook it. "I doubt me or my boys need any introduction."

She led him out of the scrap metal house that he had been held captive in for the last two hours (apparently). The Cerinian Colony was bustling as though it were a full on city; shanty homes stacked on top of each other, series' of bridges and ladders crisscrossing here and there, all kinds of metal and material was used. Despite how poor it looked, it was ingenious; a marvel of a sight, even if it were on the edge of poverty. Mammals in different shades of blue made their way left and right, getting on with their days.

Dawn led Wolf to where his comrades were standing under heavy guard; several differently shaded buff Cerinians were pointing staves at them, even Bryce didn't dare tempt his chances. Bryce's burn was completely gone. Panther turned to him in annoyance. "Wolf? What is going on?"

"We just got a new job."

**Near Kew, in Hyperspace**

**SWS Executor Officers Council Room**

**6:21 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**9:10 PM Kew Time**

_(Kew time is quite a bit quicker than Cornerian)_

Wolf sat in the extravagant captains chair in the oval room that was directly under the bridge of the Executor. 10 leather seats were spread evenly around the oval table matching the shape of the room, with a flat screen display behind Wolf's seat. With him across the table were Captain Halsey, Dawn, Panther, Ben and Bryce.

Wolf had one leg crossed over the other and was leaning back. "Alright, so before I go piss off one of my closest employers, let's go over the details of just exactly what the hell is going to happen here again."

"Me and Dawn are going down to the club, I am going to talk him into taking the Cerinians as his goons. Ben is going to be in the building ready for Dawn to send everything she learns right to his head, and he gets it on his laptop, sending it up to the Executors nav room. Depending how well the meeting goes, and it won't matter either way, we all get out. Bryce and Panther will be waiting in case Jimmy is a little angry at me bringing one of his targets back alive. Any questions?"

The room was silent.

"Good, I hate questions, they make me cranky!" The ship suddenly gave a giveaway jerk; they had arrived at Kew. Halsey got up first to head back to the bridge, and the rest followed, heading to wherever they needed to be.

**Ace of Hearts Night Club**

**Half an Hour Later**

Wolf again stood in the regal office of Jim Draigan, Wolf and his hooded companion accompanied by four black suited guards to either side of them. Draigan looked absolutely infuriated. "Who the hell is this? I know you didn't deal with those pirates, or I would have heard about it. You want an entire fucking base of operations and you can't even deal with a god damn pirate problem? You better have a good fucking excuse."

Wolf frowned, this was not starting well. He was in the right mind just to tear it off, but then it would be of no use to him or Dawn, who was probably raping it for every scrap of info she could. He needed to play Mr. Nice guy until Dawn gave him the signal. "Well, I saw a good business opportunity come out of the situation, unlike me I know. Before killing them off, they offered me a deal I thought you couldn't resist, so I decided to let you have the opportunity to make that decision yourself."

"Oh yeah? What could I possibly want from those scumbags?"

"The best damn goons you can hire, and they'll do it for cheap. All they need is regular food and equipment shipments, and nothing expensive."

Jim laid back in his seat, and fell into thought. Wolf was delighted; this was working way better than he had thought. They may not have to leave the building guns a blazing just yet; maybe they could pull the deal off. "Take it from me, Jim, these guys are the real deal. Haven't seen such competent pilots since Star Fox."

"That good eh? What, they whoop your ass?"

Now Wolf was starting to get extremely cranky. He was _this_ close to tearing the vulpine's head clean from his shoulders. If he hadn't known Jim for as long as he did, everyone in that building would already be dead. "On foot, they lured us onto their strong ground."

"You must be getting rusty, Wolf."

Wolf made a nervous look to Dawn, he was very close to snapping. Suddenly a thought, not his own, filled his head. _All of the info is secure; now remember your part of the deal._

It was hard just not to kill the arrogant ass in front of him, let alone offer him a deal that was an obvious huge cost of Wolf's honor. The plan looked so much better on paper.

"Are you game?"

He was looking at Dawn. "Let me see your friend, first."

Wolf gave her a nod, and she pulled her hood up. What Jim saw wasn't a blue furred Cerinian, it was a perfectly normal black furred Wolf. They had decided it was safer to dye the fur of any Cerinians that were to come in direct contact with their new employer as to not sacrifice their secret. "My name is Dawn, representative of the Black Hand, at your service."

Jim cracked a smirk. "I like this. I like this a lot. Tell you what Wolf, I like this enough to take the deal, but fuck giving you the.... Giving you... What was I giving you again? Fuck, it's not like me to forget."

Jim looked utterly baffled, and Wolf was taking his silent revenge on the Fox in his own mind. Dawn had erased all mention of the new base from his mind, and Wolf decided to leave that victory the way it was. He didn't need any more jobs from him anyway; he could take bounties from the Cornerian government to get shots at Venom for fucking up Sargasso, and bounties from the Cornerians were always the best pay. They often put him next to McCloud, and that was the only reason he didn't take them more regularly.

This time however, the two rivals shared a common goal, and it would be worth making that monkey pay.

Without another word, Wolf and Dawn left the office. As they headed up to the roof, Dawn worked her magic. She told the rest of the team telepathically that it was time to go; and then the guards to stop following the two lupines. Wolf grinned in amazement as they veered off, suddenly remembering other business. Wolf and Dawn made their way up to the roof, back to their fighters. Dawn's was one of the older dilapidated wrecks that Wolf could remember from the docking bay at the Cerinian Colony; the disc shaped body of the Invader II, with Arwing Mark I wing pylons instead of the usual flaps at the back of the ship. Twin laser cannons were mounted on either side of the cockpit, and Wolf couldn't even tell what kind of thruster it was; it was just a cylindrical booster of moderate size. He had no idea how capable it would be in a fight.

The other three Wolfens joined them as they rose back up into the atmosphere, and once back in their fighters, it was safe to talk. Wolf was relieved. "Well that went a lot better than it could have."

Dawn seemed exhausted. "If your ships are going to depart immediately, I would like to get back to my temporary quarters on the Executor and get rested. My telepathy takes a great deal of energy, especially when used for such a prolonged amount of time."

Wolf cocked an eyebrow at the image of the now black furred Dawn on his comm board. "Don't you need to get back to your colony?"

"The tribe leader didn't send me all the way out here just to establish a cargo line, Wolf, he wanted me to help you."

Now he was really confused; and as such, cranky as hell. "What the hell do you mean help us? Help us with what?"

"He knew you meant to join this war, and that the Venomians are a threat not only to you, but to everyone in Lylat. He wanted me to fly with you against them."

He could have laughed, she meant to demand entrance into the infamous Star Wolf over a lucky hit in close quarters with a pilot. He almost lost himself in a mix of hilarity and rage; it was so ridiculous, how could she have been so arrogant? Then it dawned on him; that was exactly the kind of guts and attitude he needed on his team; he needed everything she was. She was a telepath, a ground specialist, and a ruthless bitch. Best of all, she was hot. "Heh. I guess you read my mind already?"

"I did, while I appreciate the gesture, I have no intention of letting on me."

The comm board burst in laughter from his team mates. "Shut the fuck up, all of you!" He was beginning to regret his decision already. "Fine, but stay the fuck out of my head. Are you going to want a Wolfen?"

"I can teach you how to block it out myself, and yes, if one is available."

It so happened that he had an extra Wolfen available from when Andrew Oikonny left the team so long ago; he kept it in storage, and one of the cargo ships he owned must have picked it up from Sargasso in their quest to salvage anything valuable they could. Luckily for Dawn, there wasn't many upgrades in the Wolfen since that date, and it should still be perfectly useable.

"Yeah, I think we got one. Now, Ben, you got those base coordinates right?"

An image of the hare appeared on his comm board. "Yeah boss, a hollowed out asteroid that has a mining base built into it, its out near some backwater planet called Sauria, or some shit like that. Its about 3 hours warp from where Aquas is right now. Not as close to the core worlds as Sargasso was, but who's complaining?"

One thing was for sure, Wolf wasn't. Cornerian troopers out to make a name for themselves often frequented the asteroid fields, often having Wolf wake up at an ungodly hour in the morning to deal with the pests. A quiet place to stay would certainly be a change for the better. "Sounds good to me, lets get to the Executor and get the rest of the ships awake. We'll head out right away."

**Meanwhile, Dash's Quarters**

Dash was at his computer in his quarters, in a fittingly regal house coat looking over some of the data of today's excursions. Star Fox was heading back to Macbeth early; another speck of time they had regained in their favour.

"Grandfather, at this rate, we may run out of time. Should we deploy Omega group?"

_No! Deploying them too soon would put their effectiveness completely to waste. Other than that, we can either improvise a new distraction now, or activate our little pet._

"The bug grandfather? I thought we were going to wait longer, at the last throes of the war!"

_It must be now, before it is found. This is the best time, and the last chance we will have to use that powerful weapon. Activate it at once!_

Dash got busy immediately brining up a communication command shell with what they called "The bug." A simple command would start the process; one more dangerous to Star Fox than anything in the past had ever been.

BUG1; ACTIVATE

COMMAND ACKNOWLEDGED

STARTUP SEQUENCE INITIATED

ROOT PASSWORD?:

Dash typed in his password, a long 20 digit code he had memorized for this occasion, one that would protect the bug from tampering had it been found.

ACKNOWLEDGED

RUNNING PROGRAM /VENOM_ALPHA

DATA UPLOAD COMMENCING

**5 Hours Later**

**Orbit around Sauria**

The Executor, and the other 5 cargo ships and 5 cruisers under the ownership of Wolf jumped into orbit of the gorgeous Dinosaur Planet. Wolf was standing on the bridge of the Executor beside Halsey's captains chair, which Halsey was in. He took the liberty of making the preparations. "NAV, have you got a lock on the asteroid we're looking for?"

An experienced (scarred) looking bull dog turned to look at his captain. "Aye captain, its plenty big, we'll have no problem hiding all of the ships in there. It could almost be a moon for this planet."

Wolf smirked, Dawn had played her part well. "Lets get in there then, check out the place."

The asteroid was indeed as big as the Nav officer described; an irregular but still nearly round ball of rock with a huge pit in the side that 4 cruisers side by side could fly through. So far, it looked great, but he was infinitely more interested in the inside of the base. The Executor glided in the hole slowly, and what Wolf saw made him grin even more. A docking yard that could easily fit 15 large ships was inside the facility, all built into the walls of the hole they had entered. The building itself looked huge; it would make a perfect refuge, just the kind of place he had expected from Jim.

The Executor wasted no time docking with the building, and the following ships followed suit. All 11 ships fit in nicely. "Alright, lets check out the interior. Safe bet that life support wasn't left on so we should get bio hazard suits. Get a team of troops ready."

10 minutes or so later, Wolf, Dawn, Panther, Ben and Bryce were followed into the facility with 10 troops, all were wearing air-tight environmental suits. A transparent mag-con shield emitter was built into the neck of the tight orange suit that would allow atmosphere to be contained around the wearers head, without actually bothering with the annoying glass or transparisteel helmet.

Immediately deeper in the rock than the docking bays was a huge cargo bay, it reminded Wolf of the Sargasso station as much as it could. There was a hole more than large enough for fighters to pass through, and more than enough room to land the Wolfens plus all of the cargo they had to store inside. At the other side of the cargo bay, the 2nd floor had the entrances to the barrack hallways, and the bottom floor had hallways going to the various systems. While half of the troops went with Panther, Ben and Bryce to find to life support generator, Wolf, Dawn and 5 other troops went upstairs to check out the barracks.

It wasn't long before they had life support up and running, and everyone there began the long job of moving everything in, and making themselves at home.

**((Yawn, boring chapter, sorry it was a bit shorter than the rest. I'm just glad I got it done now, it was mostly to introduce the newest character, who is of course Dawn. Review plawks!))**


	12. Chapter 11: Right Where it Hurts

**Chapter 11: Right Where it Hurts**

**Skye's Quarters, Great Fox II**

**August 6th, 5:49 AM Lylat Standard Time**

Skye awoke with a start with a blinding pain he couldn't find focus on; nothing else was tangible, he couldn't even manage to scream. He felt himself tumble to the floor, and the snow leopard rolled about randomly trying to figure out what was wrong. It became clear that the pain was coming from his head, like a chronic headache. His paws gripped his head, and his legs twitched wildly trying desperately to find some answer to the pain. After what seemed like minutes, the pain began to subside.

Then he was looking up at the roof, his vision was clear, and the pain had mostly subsided. His eyes snapped back into focus; he could see Mina, the white cat looked like she was in a panic. "Skye...? Skye what the hell, what's wrong?"

He found the energy in him to speak. "I... I don't have a clue. I just had a chronic headache of some kind, it doesn't... It doesn't make sense."

"Do you think you should go down to the med bay?"

He shook his head, sitting up. "No... it's gone now. We can figure it out later in the morning. Sorry I bothered you."

She smiled. "Don't apologize, you goof. If you're alright, let's get some more sleep. I want to have that checked out later, maybe something is really wrong."

"Thank you" he said with a grunt, only half getting up. She rolled back in bed, but Skye remained on his knees leaning on the bed, catching his breath. Confusion swarmed him like a tsunami. He crawled up onto the bed and didn't bother pulling the covers over him. She dozed off rather quickly but Skye's mind was in a panic; what was that pain? It was worse than anything he had ever felt.

Suddenly, memories had begun to flood his mind; memories that he never realized he had.

_**Unknown Time Ago**_

_As he phased into what seemed like a dream, Skye's analytical mind immediately began to take note of his surroundings. Based on the bright white light and soft-but-cheap feeling bed, he was in a hospital room. He could feel a minor pain in the side of his head, and he was wearing a thin patient's gown. He groaned, using what energy he could to sit up. The first strange thing he had noticed was the fact that this dream, if that was what it was, was vividly real._

_There was one other person with him in the room as far as he could tell, an ape in a white lab coat. He had a darker coloured skin and a full grey mane. He knew this man, his mind identified him as Andross. Skye was again lost in confusion; how could he recognize the villain, having never seen him? Suddenly the ape saw fit to speak, his voice was deep and commanding._

_"Good morning, agent Grayson, I trust you are feeling well?"_

_His memory spoke for him, he had no control. "I am, did the surgery go as expected?"_

_"It did, connection with the implant is optimal. All is in place."_

_The implant was put into his head to directly manipulate his memories. It would wipe all mention of the mission he was about to complete from his mind, and replace the memories at the exact moment they were required. Skye's status as a Venomian military operative would be completely wiped, as with his memory of it. This was the only way for the operation to work._

_"I take it my memories are not to last much longer?"_

_"No, you will be released from here in but hours from now, not knowing how you got to your new location. The rest of the Scarlet Hand will be preparing very specific circumstances to allow you into the target organization, and then everything you need to know will be released back into your memories."_

_"If the team should fail?"_

_"Then the worst case scenario is that your memories remain lost, and you are free to a life unaffected by your time here. Your team however, would be promptly executed."_

_His objective, was the execution of Star Fox from the inside._

**6:10 AM**

It all flooded back to him so quickly; he never did remember how he came into Katt's employ, only that he was, and he was being paid. He was always annoyed by the fact he couldn't remember anything since fleeing Katina after his sisters death at the hands of the Cornerian military between his employment as Katt's personal bodyguard; and now the entire puzzle was complete, everything made perfect sense.

After Janice's death, Skye had fled Katina to go straight to Venom, the only place he would be safe from the wrath of Cornerian law enforcement; in which he was wanted for jail breaking. He took a job teaching astro-mechanics at the Imperial University of Combat Sciences nearby to the huge temple the natives of the planet erected in Andross' honor. Seeing Skye's ability in star fighter design, having designed the Arwings, Andross offered Skye a job developing his answer to the Arwing; the fighter they eventually called the Wolfen. The Cornerian military never knew how the secret of the G Diffuser was leaked to the Venomians; fortunately for them, the brave pilots of Star Fox were able to best the newer fighters Skye had built for his new lord, even the fabulous Wolfen II's which Skye had built and tested tirelessly since the defeat of the original Wolfens on Fortuna, only to see them destroyed as well in the final battle in Venoms skies.

Having exhausted his usefulness as an engineer, Skye had taken basic combat training in the Venomian military, hoping if none else to take the fight to the enemy that had killed his sister, the Cornerians as a whole. He accelerated through black ops training fairly quickly, and already having a pilots ability under his belt, he was admitted to the Scarlet Hand, a black ops unit under command of the emperor Andross himself during the Lylat War, the unit responsible for such devastating victories as the sacking of Macbeth and the sabotage of the Sector Z fleet through the disabling of their radiation proof scanning base.

Skye had accepted a job given to him from Andross personally; his memories would be wiped, and he would be inserted into Star Fox, the most dangerous enemy in the Cornerians arsenal, and tasked with ripping it out from the inside, against all odds. The Scarlet Hand had obviously abandoned him when only days later, Star Fox killed Andross and ended the war. Now, by some sick coincidence, he had actually found his way into Star Fox on his own; the implant had activated as planned, and would force him to carry out his two decade old duty.

Either everyone on the Great Fox II dies, or he dies via the implant electrocuting his brain.

**Fox McCloud's Quarters**

**8:15 AM **

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

Seventy beeps, Fox had tried to ignore in his sleep. Seventy plus more as the thought ran through his mind. He tried to make them less annoying by counting them in his head, but the realization of why he was counting him caused him to lose, count, and he lost his patience with it.

He shot up with a start. "God mother fucking Damnit ROB! What in the name of the deepest darkest corners of hell could possibly possess you to beep my brains out at this hour in the FUCKING MORNING?!"

He actually didn't know what time it was, what he did know is that Krystal shot up and looked dazed in half sleep, apparently not aware of the beeping until Fox began his spree of profanities. The robotic voice of ROB filled the bedroom. "SKYE'S ARWING IS MISSING."

This had him wide awake in a hurry. "What? Is Skye on board the Great Fox?"

"NEGATIVE."

Fox and Krystal exchanged looks, he could tell she was as worried as he was. "Any clue as to where he went?"

"ANOMOLY DETECTED ON THE HULL OF YOUR ARWING. SCANS SUGGEST OF A RECENT WARP TRAIL SUGGESTS STRAIGHT PATH TO ZONESS."

"A note!" Krystal shouted, nearly falling off the bed.

Fox stumbled to his closet, to go get some clothes on. "Alert the rest of the crew and meet in the docking bay! Set a course for Zoness!"

"AFFIRMATIVE, ETA FROM CURRENT POSITION AN HOUR AND THIRTY FIVE MINUTES."

Fox sat on the floor for a second holding onto a pair of jeans he was planning on putting on; there was an hour and a half until they launched, he had time to collect his thoughts. More importantly yet, take a shower. Krystal beat him to the bathroom, however, and he decided he didn't give a damn how he smelled today; especially if he was just going to be in his cockpit anyway. He slapped on some deodorant instead, putting on his classic Star Fox uniform. Gray flight jacket with a dark green sweater underneath and matching colour pants. He never left the ship without his combat boots, either.

As he started walking to the elevator so he could go down to the docking bay, another door hissed open. The tired face of Mina stumbled out of her quarters; she was wearing a sapphire blue tank top and white jeans. She was rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Fox was surprised she didn't look more distressed. "Morning, Mina."

She looked at him sheepishly. "Fox, do you know what's going on? I didn't see Skye, I thought he might have already woke up."

"Well, that's exactly the problem."

She looked to him in curiosity as they stepped into the elevator down into the docking bay, and as it started to descend he explained. "ROB is telling me that Skye's Arwing has gone missing, and there's a note left down in the docking bay. Apparently he headed to Zoness, hopefully his note will explain why."

She looked thoughtful. "He had better have a good reason, not like some idiotic suicide mission."

The elevator door slid open, and Fox made a dash for his Arwing. In clear sight was a note stuck crudely to the nose of the fighter.

_"I have found the last research base; but this is something I have to do alone, I am sorry I didn't tell you all. Do not follow me. If I do not return, tell Mina that I had no choice, and that I love her."_

Mina caught up with him and read the note in his hand over his shoulder. "It's just as we feared."

Fox yelled at the walls. "ROB, can we get any more power to the engines?"

"EMERGENCY RESERVES ARE AT FULL, AND CAN BE USED TO BOOST THE ENGINES BY AN ADDITIONAL 25% IF REQUIRED, HOWEVER THE RESERVES WILL NEED TWO DAYS TO RECHARGE AFTERWARDS BEFORE WE MAY USE THEM AGAIN."

"Do it! All power to the engines, cut down the travel time by as much as you can, we might already be too late!"

**=-=-=-=**

**Surface of Zoness**

**Venomian Research Facility Epsilon Seven**

The Assassin touched down smoothly on the VIP transport deck of the old Venomian research facility. It, like the ones they had encountered before, had been originally used for bio weapon development during the Lylat war. This particular base was dedicated solely to the industrialization of this planet, and one of the major sources of it's uninhabitable state. Two people knew where it was; Skye, and Andross.

As the canopy opened, Skye doubled checked the transponder signal emitter to make sure his location would be lit up like a Christmas tree for the Star Fox team to follow; the Arwing would be the bait for his trap. Once everything was in order, he leaped out of the cockpit onto the cold steel of the docking platform, the canopy slowly began to seal shut.

He was dressed for the most brutal of combat. He would have looked simply dressed in a black sweater and matching cargo pants if it weren't for the accessories and weapons he carried with him; two 10 mm pistols on each thigh, his sniper rifle across his back, several grenades of different types along his belt along with straps across his chest with several pockets containing clips for his weapons. Over his black shirt was a heavy combat vest, which could protect him from anything short than explosive rounds.

He walked calmly into the facility, up a spiraling set of stairs to it's top floor. However, is mental state was anything but calm. His mind making calculations on the predicament he was in. He knew his orders, and he knew how he could carry them out with efficiency. The thing stopping him was that the implant had failed to erase his relationships with the team; they were like a family to him that he lost so many years ago with the death of Janice. The decision between them and him was more than obvious; if he had to, he would have to die in their place. He could not go out, however, without them knowing his true purposes. He could not die with that guilty conscience, not having told them why he did what he did.

At the top of the facility was a control room, several old, dusty consoles sparked to life upon his entrance into the room. A map of the immediate region slowly came into view from a holoprojector that had been inactive for almost twenty years, an old style monotone AI voice greeted him. "WELCOME AGENT GREYSON. FACILITY IS ONLINE AND AWAITING INSTRUCTIONS."

"Prepare the bio weapon for release, and amplify my Arwing's transponder signal to give them a better chance of finding us quickly. Is the connection to the detonators secure?"

"CONNECTION SECURE. DETONATOR DEVICE IS READY." When the computer finished saying this, a hole in the middle of the room opened up with the snap of small metal doors. A pedestal shot up quickly, and on it was a small cylindrical object; with a large red switch on the top.

**=-=-=-=**

**Great Fox II Docking Bay**

**9:25 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**Orbit over Zoness**

Fox, Krystal, Slippy, Falco, Mina and Katt's Arwings emitted their signature whine as their engines flared to life. The docking bay doors began their signature crawl open as the ships moved into position to launch down to the toxic green ocean world.

Krystal was more than troubled. "I can't believe I could have missed this; you would think I would have heard any mention of the last base in his mind, it was only last night I last saw him. It would have been really easy too; all of you were drunk but me."

Falco was in a rage; he had a horrible hangover. "He had better have a damn good reason for running off, because this bird is NOT in the mood to be chasing cocky idiots with a headache like this!"

Slippy was in a panic. "What could have he been thinking anyway? Why would he have to handle the last base on his own?"

Mina sounded determined, instead of worried. "We'll find out once we find him. I have a bad feeling it had something to do with that headache he had this morning."

The docking bay doors locked open, and the Arwings launched one after the other. The green sister planet to Aquas before them. Before the Lylat War the planet was much like Aquas; its waters a gorgeous blue, teeming with a massive diversity of life. However as other planets did, Zoness became a target of Andross' insane ambitions. The planet was nearly destroyed by pollution and corruption as the Venomians built great destructive industrial platforms and drill sites. The corruption was so bad, that after only a month of occupation, the planets waters had turned permanently to a sickly green. For years, there had been tireless efforts to reclaim the once gorgeous planet and return it to its former glory, but there had not been much success thus far. The sources of the pollution had been shut down, but there had been no progress on actually reversing the damage done; the corruption was indeed deep; there is still barely any life remaining on it, other than the pirates other scum hiding in abandoned industrial buildings.

The strange thing was that the planet had been extensively searched for years after the war for biochemical weapons, Zoness being the top candidate for hiding such a weapon, considering all of the damage done. However, not even a clue was even found; which was another reason that the presence of a base here seemed so suspicious to Fox and his pilots. They stuck together at full thrust in low orbit, scanners of the Arwings and the Great Fox scouring the surface and its facilities for any sign of the Assassin, and Skye.

Suddenly, a green transponder signal appeared on Katt's radar. "Guys, I got him. 11'O clock low. The Assassins transponder is active, almost like he wanted us to find him."

"This gets weirder by the minute..." Slippy said, breaking off the group and taking a pass around the building that the transponder was coming from.

It was a hell of a lot larger than any of the other drill sites on the surface; it was like 4 drilling platforms molded together sloppily into one, bridges criss-crossing between the four platforms. It towered quite a bit higher as well, almost as high as the average sky scraper in Corneria City. The Arwings circled around it, trying to get their eyes on the fighter from the sky.

--

Skye stood on a balcony looking up at the smoggy skies of Zoness; the depressing amount of pollution making the day look permanently under the shadow of an impending storm, but despite the lack of sunlight the air was stifling hot. Skye didn't care about this, he would probably be dead soon. Temporary discomforts were of no consequence. He watched the six Arwings start circling around the base, and he looked up at them, knowing they couldn't see him from their altitude. Right on schedule, the beast that had laid dormant for twenty years began its ascent from the ocean…

--

As they circled the base, Falco noticed a second blip on his radar before the others; it was red, and it was massive. "Guys, you better get a look at- holy shit WHAT IS THAT?!"

His view was filled with the visage of the owner of the huge dot; whatever it was, it was not there on friendly business. He had seen many of Andross' bio weapons in the past, but this was nothing in comparison. The first word that came to mind to describe the sight was a dragon. The green snake like beast couldn't have been any short of a kilometer long, massive wings keeping it afloat. A multitude of weapons of every kind lined the beasts body, between the weapons was thick plate armor. Falco had no idea how the wings were holding up that much weight.

The team had spotted the monster and was headed straight for it. Fox put on his game face. "Alright, lock and load; let's bring this thing down." He decided to check if its armor was immune to lasers, and squeezed the laser trigger on his pilots yoke.

Nothing. No lasers, no damage. He tried again a couple times but it wasn't working. The truth of the situation dawned on him. "Oh my god, he sabotaged our guns." The rest of the team was trying their lasers as well. They were all shocked, realizing what Skye had done; Skye had led them straight into a trap.

Fox's mind was calculating the situation; there was only one weapon he had at his disposal that Skye couldn't have sabotaged; and that was the Great Fox's main guns. "ROB, how soon can you get into weapons range?"

The Arwings dodged as the Dragons many weapons opened fire; lasers filled the air as the ships struggled to get clear of the immense kill radius of the beast. "FIVE MINUTES, PERHAPS LESS."

"You have three. Someone needs to go down to the platform and find Skye, and figure out why he's doing this."

Mina was barely responsive of the incoming fire; the news hit her like a missile to the stomach. The pain of betrayal was beyond anything she had ever felt, it made her want revenge even more. "I'll do it."

"Go for it. The rest of you, lets keep this thing busy! Can we break orbit?"

Slippy was in a panic. "Fox, we better not try! I'm not getting a reading from my G-Diffuser any more, some kind of jamming device coming from the Dragon, I would guess. We'll be torn apart from the G-Forces if we try to break orbit like this!"

Fox cursed. "Then we'll have to play Skye's game for now, be careful; and don't try any crazy maneuvers, we don't have protection from G forces any more!"

The Arwings danced around the dragon as all different colours of energy weapons filled the skies above the murky green ocean. Mina turned tail and headed back towards the platform, bringing the Ranger to a stop on the first docking pad she saw. She took only her sword and a blaster pistol, both which she kept with her in her cockpit. She wanted to get up close and personal with Skye for what he had done.

**The Research Base**

She hopped out of the fighter as the engine whined to a halt, her eyes sharpened up right away, checking her surroundings. She couldn't feel a presence; but she knew that Skye was a professional sniper. If he had meant to kill her, she would have been dead the moment she opened her canopy. She drew her sword and wandered into the closest facility building at a quick trot; her friends were counting on her.

Her ears were perked for any sort of signal she could find as she wandered through the largest of the buildings tied together in the mess of the drilling facility; It was clear it had been abandoned for years, but some of the technology had been freshly activated. Lights, ventilation, and even some of the computers were on and working. Suddenly her ears picked up a minute sound other than her own footsteps; a different set of footsteps. By her best guess it was two floors above her. She moved with a silent precision that only came natural to felines and a small selection of other predators in her hunt for Skye.

Skye, on the other hand, was not trying to be sneaky at all. Variables ran through his head rapidly. He didn't want to harm his friends, but the time for action was becoming dangerously thin. If he didn't do what he was commanded to all of those years ago, the implant in his brain would electrocute him until he fried like an egg, the most impossibly painful way to die. It was specifically designed to interact with his pain receptors all throughout his body.

He had few options; most of them resulted in his death. His instinct, as the implant commanded, demanded he pull the detonator right then and there, killing all of Star Fox. His gut, however, knew that if it were a choice between his own and his friends lives, it was his responsibility -No, his duty- to destroy the detonator, allowing them to escape scot free. Upon the destruction of the device, their weapons and G-Diffusers would come online.

Only one thing caused him to hesitate; fear. Fear of the death that undoubtedly awaited him should he choose Star Fox over himself. He could hear his death coming; not only in the demands of the implant, but in the footsteps his acutely tuned ears he heard, most likely Mina's based on their near silence. Despite her profession, no one was as well trained as Skye in the arts of stealth. He was already the best amongst the team in a black operations environment; and all of the sudden his training and experience as part of the Scarlet Hand was at his disposal again. He felt like a god amongst mortals; he wasn't sure if that was arrogance talking or an actual judgment of his incredible new (or old) wealth of knowledge, both in experience and tactics.

It was then he made up his mind; he would let it all be cleansed in his blood. The only hope the system had of dealing with the true menace -Venom- was for Skye to fail here. The only way what he had done could be reversed at this point would be the destruction of the detonator under Mina's eyes; and she would watch the traitor die the most painful death imaginable.

The building Mina pursued him through came to a halt as he reached the top floor, and a door leading out to an expansive balcony large enough to land an Arwing was revealed. He burst through the door, making sure to give Mina a clear idea of where he had headed. He walked straight to the edge, and took one last look at the scene before him. It was a depressing visage of the death of a planet; the very death his former master was responsible for, the very one he was about to die to defy.

His ears caught Mina catching up to him, walking quietly through the doors he had just entered. She spoke first.

"Skye?"

He did not turn around, instead he held out in his paw a small cylindrical device. "This is the detonator for the explosives contained within each of your Arwings. If I press this switch, they all die."

"Why are you doing this?"

"It is no choice of mine." He turned around to face her. "I am sorry Mina."

"Skye, what the hell are you doing? You have us all by the throat, why are you betraying us?"

"Upon the destruction of this detonator, an implant inside of my head will immediately kill me, and the Arwings will be set free, weapons and G-Diffusers will come online. I cannot explain why I have done this, as there is no time. You will be free to go."

"You're not making any sense!"

"Goodbye. I love you."

With the last inch of courage he had left, he tossed the detonator over the side of the balcony, and into the ocean below.

As soon as the device hit the water, he was struck with the most excruciating pain possible. His senses all lit on fire, every inch of his skin demanded it be let loose off of the self destructive body. He was in horrible spasms of pain on the ground, with no control over his convulsions or his screams. Mina watched in horror, and in tears, as Skye's screams rocked the very foundation of the building. She could only stand and watch as it unfolded; but eventually the body stopped moving.

Skye was dead.

She let the tears steam down her face; there was no use trying to hold them back. For once she had been allowed a love, only to have him taken away by a force that made no sense to her. Part of her mind was still in the game however, and she pulled her headset microphone closer to her mouth. "Guys, he's dead, I have no idea what happened but the Arwings should be working now."

**In the Sky**

Her message came through loud and clear, Fox tried his lasers right away. To his delight, blue pulses of hyper laser death scorched the flesh of the dragon, some of it's cannons torn right off. "She's right! Systems are up, team!"

Slippy was both delighted and shocked at the same time. "What happened down there Mina?!"

Her Arwing became visible on their radar again, as the Ranger soared up into the polluted skies. "I… I can't explain it, not now."

The team's game face was back on; they had a chance against this monster now. If they let it loose it would terrorize the few civilians that were part of the environment recovery effort; and lives in danger wouldn't be allowed on Star Fox's watch. "Everyone pull away from it and get set for a bombing run, were going to smoke this thing with smart bombs, full on barrage. Don't spare any firepower!"

The Arwings all looped away from the creature, except for Mina who was simply drifting around the base, completely zoned out in her sorrow over what had just happened. The Ranger didn't have smart bombs either way. As the Arwings pointed back into the dragon's direction, the Great Fox began to come into view, at this point it would only have to watch the fireworks.

"Time to die, you ugly son of a bitch." Falco said, smirking as he put his thumb on the smart bomb trigger.

The red trails of death leaped out of the Arwings in a glorious show of cannon-like shots. The tiny explosives colliding with the immense creature at several points, it erupted into a golden explosion whose shockwave rocked all of the Arwings as they pulled up out of the blast.

When the light cleared, there wasn't much left of the creature other than debris and huge sections of it's body falling down into the toxic ocean below. The Arwings all pulled up back towards their mother ship to make their way off the planet as soon as possible.

Mina took one more pass around the research base before joining in their ascent. Looking down to the very balcony where she had watched him die, more tears flowed down her white furred cheeks. "Why…?"

**Great Fox Galley**

**10:30 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**En Route to Macbeth**

The sat in the galley in silence, a silence that would have normally been broken with Skye announcing that there was work to be done on the ships, or him needing to clean his rifle. The only members of the team not present there were Mina, who Krystal had explained was up in her room, and Slippy, who was probably down with Amanda. It seemed nothing could shatter the gloom that had befallen the room.

Fox couldn't even bring himself to eat. Not only had he lost a friend, he had his trust frayed horribly. He had trusted Skye with his life, but some how, some why, he turned out to be a traitor to them. They were left with no idea of his motives, or his reasoning; just the fact that in the span of two hours, they had lost a dear friend in the worst possible way.

Falco was holding Katt in one of his wings, but even the care free avian was in a depression. He looked down at a now cold cup of coffee in the deepest thought that Fox had ever seen him in.

Krystal had been leaning on Fox, both detrimental and afraid. This was the third time in a row that her telepathy had failed her; and she grew more worried and frightened with each passing moment, with thoughts of her power possibly dimming out of existence slowly.

"How did I not see it coming?" she said, nearly sobbing. There were no tears in her eyes, but she was on the verge.

"There has to be a logical explanation, Krystal. Your senses can't just go away like that."

Finally a tear rolled down her cheek, Falco finally deciding to take a sip of his coffee, breaking the silence. "So, now what do we do."

Back into a stream of thought, (which Fox silently thanked Falco for) Fox ran over his options. "I suppose the only thing we can do right now is contact Peppy and let him know what happened."

"You're right. For now, we should get some rest."

Katt was not asleep, but was limp as though she were. It just occurred to the bird then how hard Katt must have taken it; she had been a vessel all along to let the traitor on board the Great Fox. It was because of her that the team had almost died. On top of that, the shock of losing one of her closest friends was almost too much to bear. Falco decided it was required of him to carry her out. Picking her up bridal style, Falco's grip finally caused Katt to relax and fall into a sleep. He carried her out of the room; now Fox and Krystal were alone.

"Guess we better contact Peppy, huh." he said to his depressed angel. She didn't answer, and instead he just let her lay there leaning on him. "Rob, how long till we're out of warp so we can send messages to command?"

The walls answered him. "TWENTY MINUTES."

Twenty minutes then, he would sit with his beloved, going over the events of this crazy morning.

**Skye's Quarters**

Mina was in a panic; what had happened today couldn't be true, she thought, as she dashed about the room in tears. The cat furiously went through Skye's drawers and various cases hoping to find some clue as to why he would betray them all, why he would betray her.

However, especially in her frantic state, she knew she was failing. Amongst everything she searched; gun cases, the bottoms of equipment cases, files on his laptop, there wasn't a single mention of a plan. On top of that, one thing didn't add up…

Why didn't he finish the job? He had them all fooled, and right in his trap. He could have killed them all, but killed himself instead before he could do it.

She crashed, lying back on his former bed, letting the tears stream. The first time in her life that she let someone past her considerable defenses, only days later it was shoved back in her face in the cruelest fashion imaginable. Love was the best feeling in the cosmos, and she felt as though she were having withdrawal symptoms on top of the shock of Skye's actions. As much as her rational mind tried to create theories as to why he did what he did, her irrational side was making far too much noise. She finally fell asleep right there on his bed in her depression…

**Noon, Lylat Standard Time**

**Surface of Zoness**

**Lost Research Base**

The snow leopard groaned in pain as he tried to sit up. He had no idea how, no idea why, but somehow he managed to survive. He recalled the events as he rested his back on the rail of the balcony.

As the shock pulsated through him, while he didn't have control over his body, his incredible black ops conditioning allowed him one flicker of hope; the implant was wired into his memories and designed to interact with it; perhaps he could hack into it sending the right signals from his own brain.

To his own shock, it had worked. The electrocution stopped in time for him to have some hope of survival; and now, having somehow come out of consciousness, he found himself perfectly able. In terrible pain, but not paralyzed as far as he knew. To double check, he wiggled as many of his limbs as he could think of in his state; and watched them all move properly. Despite the excruciating burning in every muscle he allowed himself a smile.

Now he needed a plan. Dash must have told his commanders that if I returned, they were to assume a successful mission on my part and welcome Skye with open arms. He thought of how he could use it as an advantage. While the team may never trust him again, it might have still been possible to give them a hand from behind the scenes; a double agent.

His first step then, was to find a Venomian ship and test his theory. With a grunt he managed to stand. While his posture was one of someone seventy years older, he imagined he could walk the short distance to the Assassin. Getting along with his limp, he headed to the VIP docking ramp that he landed the fighter on upon his arrival here.

It took a lot of effort his pained muscle rebelled against, but he managed to make it to his ship and clamber into the cockpit. He got to work bringing the fighter to the air, and the canopy sealed shut just as it hopped off of it's resting place. The cockpit was silent except for the whine of the Arwing's cold engine working, and Skye's heavy breathing.

"Why did it all have to happen?" he groaned to himself, allowing a tear to roll down his cheek, the fighter shooting out into space.

"Mina, I'm so sorry."

**2 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Titanian Orbit**

**Venomian Flagship Indignation**

Admiral Aiken Silversmith sat on his lofty seat aboard the most impressive ship ever built in known history; the Indignation, the first of the new Juggernaught class dreadnaughts, and probably would be the only one, due to the ridiculous cost to manufacture the beast.

It was certainly the largest ship ever built; it's main body, a huge egg shaped disk-like section which was thicker at the back, was a massive 8 kilometers from bow to stern, and 4 kilometers from the widest sections at the rear of the ship. A huge spire stood out of the top and bottom of the ship, both sides of it leaning towards the stern, the bridge at the very top, with a commanding view of the marvelous vessel. Guns lined the entire disk section, and the heavier beam cannons lined the sides of the spire section. Four on each side of each end of the spire; sixteen of them in total, enough firepower to destroy 4 Cornerian Dreadnaughts in a single volley. The crew complement was immense; 14,000 plus 2,000 fighter pilots and 3,000 ready and able marines. The Indignation was practically fit to fight the war herself.

Relaxing at the view of his enormous weapon of mass destruction, he was suddenly interrupted by his communications officer, a shaggy looking brown furred male dog known to the Admiral as Lieutenant Green. "Admiral sir, we have a contact. A modified Arwing II class fighter, it matches the specs sent to us by the Emperor, sir."

"The inside agent? He must have succeeded then! Without Star Fox, this war will be ours in a matter of days. Welcome the good Mr. Greyson aboard, would you lieutenant?"

"Right away sir!" he said, turning to his console. Dragging his finger across a touch screen targeting the small fighter, a channel was opened. "This is the VIS Indignation, identify yourself."

A coarse baritone voice answered. "This is special agent Skye Greyson of the Scarlet Hand, requesting permission to board."

"Granted, welcome aboard, agent."

"My pleasure."

=-=-=-=-=-=

Skye sat in his cockpit both in shock, and in awe. The ship before him was the most immense structure he had ever seen in his life; let alone the largest ship. The name Indignation was well earned; this ship would tear apart the Cornerian fleet in minutes.

However, despite what they must have believed at this point, Star Fox was indeed still alive. As long as his presence wasn't noted in the captain of this vessels next communication with Dash, the story would hold, and so would his cover. If they believed the legendary Fox McCloud dead, they would surely move to take Macbeth without a moments hesitation.

However, Skye feared this massive ship would be too much even for his former team. He had to figure out a way to disable it somehow; turn the tables against the Venomians.

A beacon sent to his HUD by the Indignations communications officer lead him to a docking bay on the starboard side of the ship. His Arwing's engine whined as he set it down, the landing struts taking the shock smoothly and gracefully.

He didn't rush out of his cockpit; despite having two hours to recover his muscles were still extremely sore. A soldier fully covered by a set of thick, ominous looking battle armor jogged up to Skye with his rifle cradled casually. "Welcome aboard sir, I have been instructed to show you to your temporary quarters."

"Good, lead the way."

"Are you injured sir? I can get the docs to come up to your quarters, or we can head straight to sick bay."

"No" he said with a grunt. "Just a bit sore, I'll be alright. Lead the way to my quarters, trooper."

"Yes sir, this way." Finishing this, the troop turned around and headed straight to the door leading out of the immense docking bay. The other fighters, a modern collection of Invader IV fighters, were all crowded together rather tightly. The Assassin however was given plenty of room; it appeared he was a guest of honor, they really believed Star Fox was dead.

The soldier kept an eye on the snow leopard making sure not to out pace him, Skye had a slight limp to his walk, and the troop politely let Skye set the tempo of their walk. The doors at the far end of the bay slid open for them automatically, and what Skye saw inside was incredible.

It appeared that the entire superstructure of the ship was interconnected by one huge highway-like hollowed spine; platforms flew about the open space in the center of the immense hall zipping past to one destination or another; each door in the hallway had several platforms ready to take passengers along. The hall covered 10 decks of the ship, Skye quickly counted; it was one of the most marveling space ship design ideas he had ever seen. The trooper lead him onto one of the bland, white platforms, and a holographic console appeared in thin air. Pressing a few of the semi-imaginary buttons, the platform came to life. To Skye's surprise, there was no shock when the platform began moving at what must have been 60 kilometers per hour; each of these platforms must have been built with a miniature gravity diffuser.

"I am impressed, this is quite the ship."

"The Admiral often expresses his sentiment on the matter as well. It's the ace in the hole for this war, sir. Cost a pretty penny, I hear."

"Did you hear an exact cost?"

"Not an exact, sir, I heard in the range of 21 billion credits though."

"Shit…."

Finally seeing fit to stand up straight, Skye was awed by the sights of the incredible ship. As the platform zipped through intersections making regular turns, he felt as though he were in the middle of the city. The walls and most of the equipment were all white washed; it seemed to be the most technologically advanced structure ever built.

Eventually the platform came to a stop, in a much tighter hallway then the one near the docking bay. This one only was as tall as three decks; and the room they stopped at was in the center of the three, near the dead end; he must have been right near the bridge officer quarters.

The trooper walked off the platform without a word, and stopped beside the door, facing Skye. The snow leopard walked to the door and it slid open for him, the trooper called in to him. "If you need anything, there's a service console near the door."

"Thank you." Skye replied as the door sealed behind him. The quarters were indeed extravagant; much more so than the old room in the Great Fox II. The room wasn't white like the rest of the ship, the walls were a deep luxurious red and the floors covered in a fine blue carpet. It was rectangular in shape. In the far left corner was an extravagant double bed fit for a five star hotel, it's covers and other surfaces matching the red of the walls. In the center of the room, closest to him was a fine looking blue couch, a white coffee table, and at the far wall, an extensively large holoprojector. A desk at the right side of the room had a laptop on it; one he could use for making his plans.

Before he began however, he sat at the desk and tore open the panel at the bottom. Quickly identifying the wireless card, he unplugged it and set it beside the computer. He couldn't have the ships security see what was on his computer; especially because they were plans for all of their demise. Closing the panel, Skye started the machine up. It was time to formulate a plan.

**((And there you have it, the story finally coming to it's slope to the climax. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, tried to make it as intense as possible. Twelve is going to be equally intense! Review plzplz, I need more motivation to write this… My Pokémon fic has a hell of a lot of promise, and I need a reason not to start that one now and leave this for a bit, haha.))**


	13. Chapter 12: Keep your Enemies Closer

**Chapter 12: Keep your Enemies Closer**

**Star Wolf HQ, Saurian Orbit**

**August 10th, 10:20 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**((Autho**

_**((Authors Notes: A few nasty plot holes made themselves apparent over the next few chapters, so this one may appear to bounce around a lot: I had to completely change the plot of the next few without changing the overall path.))**_

It had been a week exactly since Star Wolf and his small fleet of ships found themselves at home in the hollowed asteroid they had come to aptly name Lupinhold. Panther had thought of the name, and it caught on quickly. Wolf in particular enjoyed it's obvious suggestion that a wolf was it's master, whilst still keeping the majestic darkness about it.

Wolf's laptop roared with some ghetto heavy metal of which he couldn't quite put his finger on the name of while he pondered his next move, looking out the new view of his room. Just because he hated having to get used to a new room, he picked and modeled his new room in Lupinhold much like his room on Sargasso. The scene was almost exactly as it was one week ago on the morning of the missile attack; except out his window he didn't see a thick asteroid belt, he saw the gorgeous green and blue Sauria. He was almost tempted to bring the team down to one of it's beaches; Panther had "borrowed" the mission report's from McCloud's trip to Sauria about a decade ago, and heard that some of the landscape would make a pretty sweet vacation spot.

Other than a nice vacation, Wolf had a dilemma on his mind; what was he going to do to make Dash regret attacking Sargasso as much as possible? The only way he knew how; blowing his stuff up. He had only hoped to find a way to make money while he was at it; he was rather low on funds, and he would have to start selling ships in a couple of months if he didn't get some money soon.

Then he heard a voice behind him, and it made him nearly fall off his chair in surprise. "We could always ask the Cornerians for contracts against the Venomians."

It was Dawn. He had no idea how long she had been standing behind him, but he didn't care. His heavy pistol was pointed straight at her face. "What did I tell you about going into my head?"

She just gave him a smile. "But it is a good idea, isn't it?"

He set down the pistol and slouched back into his seat. "Yeah."

"Should I patch them through to your screen?"

"Go for it."

"No objections?"

"Nope."

"Alright then."

"Okay."

She walked up to his laptop, and he didn't bother watching what she typed in. In moments, a view of General Peppy popped up in his classic red Generals uniform on the big screen on the far wall. He instantly looked enraged at the sight of Wolf casually facing him slouched in an office chair. "What the, how did you get this frequency? What the hell do you want, O'Donnell?"

He didn't bother correcting his posture. "I want work, we both have a common goal. We want to break as many of Dash's toys as we can. I happen to be pretty good at that, and I'm a little short on income at the moment…"

This only served to piss the old rabbit even more. "What the hell do you think you're doing, you have a multiple million credit bounty on your head and you want us to pay YOU?"

Wolf just stared at him, waiting for Peppy to realize the truth.

"Well, then again…" he slouched, realizing how low he had to sink to get every advantage he could get. "I guess we could use your help. Send me a frequency I can contact you on if I need you for anything."

"Glad we could do business." then the monitor winked out. Wolf spun his chair around and looked at Dawn; realizing for the first time since she interrupted his rest just how good she looked. A tight green turtle-neck and beige jeans really showed off her curves; not caring if she could read his mind, his eye piece gave him a read out. 5'10 and 34D breasts. _"Hardcore."_ he thought. She cocked an eyebrow at him but he spoke before she could comment. "So, how DID you get that frequency?"

"Pulled it from McCloud's mind of course. If you didn't know, he encountered us in a very similar manner as you only days before you did. He had a similar degree of success getting to us, as well." She giggled at this, and sat down on his bed. "So, I was going to show you how to block out my telepathy, remember?"

"Yeah." he got up from his chair. "Where do we start?" he said with a grumble.

She patted a seat next to her on the bed. "Start by getting your shirt off."

He smirked. "Oh?"

"Don't get any funny ideas." she said, cracking her knuckles. "You need to be relaxed for this, so I'm going to need to give you a massage. A proper one." He liked the sound of this so far, and had no objections. He tossed off the black T-Shirt he was wearing and sat beside her. Her fingers wrapped around his shoulders without any of the seductive intent he expected; professionally kneading away at the muscles that had been sore for so long he nearly learned to ignore it. His rigid shoulders sunk as he loosened up.

Just as he was getting used to the new comfort, she stopped. "Better?" she asked.

"Much" he groaned, rolling his shoulders.

"Good, let's get started."

**Meanwhile…**

**War Room, Androsia Palace**

The War Room of Dash's extravagant palace was one of the few in his home that the money was mostly spent on functionality rather than grandeur; A few of his finest officers sat in extravagant leather seats lining a table that extended upwards of twenty meters, and being the main feature of the room. One end, the one Dash was pacing at, had the entire wall covered in a giant screen that was cycling through gigabytes of relevant information to what they were discussing. The other end was a window, with the magnificent view of the city on which the palace stood.

Dash was wearing a Venomian Grand Admiral's uniform that was spiced up a little extra to signify his supreme authority. A gray suit, with golden shoulder pads and a golden sash running abreast. His gold jeweled crown sat on his gray furred head, but almost was ready to fall off with the furiosity of his pacing.

He stopped, yelling at his officers as though he were accusing them. "How could this have possibly failed, hmm? The bio weapon was confirmed launched, the Arwings all but disabled, and our agent had them by the very throats. What possible maniacal twist of fate could have POSSIBLY pulled those goons Star Fox out of that kind of a trap?"

His officers kept silent, risking execution should they cross their leader with a poor choice of words. "Now, we are out of time. Our fleet is ready to go, and we are short on time until the Macbeth planetary defenses are back online and we lose our chance to sweep the entire Cornerian fleet with the Indignation. Despite all of you apparent efforts, Star Fox and the Patriot are still active. Do any of you buffoons have a suggestion that would save your own heads from meeting the block?" He glared at them like he was looking for an excuse to have one of them try and win a staring contest with a tank.

One of the braver ones raised his hand. An old brown ferret by the name of Admiral Crane. "If we can even distract either of them at a time, my lord, we should have an open window to begin our sweep. It shouldn't be difficult gaining leverage to get them out of the way for the one day we need to hit Macbeth."

Dash finally took his seat at the head of the table. "You are correct, Crane. At this point however, how are we going to concoct something in time to distract them?"

"This time, I think tricking them is just going to set off their little trap alarms. This time, I believe we should make a more direct approach." Dash glared at the Admiral, waiting for him to finish his idea. "For the Patriot, we need only lay bait for General Hare that he cannot ignore. A hostage, perhaps. For Star Fox, we simply threaten something dear to him. The dual attack between Fichina and Aquas worked excellently in this regard, and even if they are ready for it, there is no real way for them to counter it unless they decide to abandon one."

A hologram of the old Admiral Silversmith in command of the Indignation "sat" across the table from Crane, and decided to add on this. "For a hostage, I happen to know Mr. Hare has a daughter by the name of Lucy Hare, who was last reported teaching Astro-physics on the new University in the City of Hope on Zoness."

Dash curled his frown into a sadistic grin. "That will be easy to get her, we need only send a special operations craft. I'm sure we can find some old dilapidated station to hide her in and lure the Patriot into a trap. He won't move the whole fleet, for sure, and risk Macbeth being undefended. However…." this is where he glared at the two for the idiocy of their plan. "There is nothing stopping him from just sending Star Fox to deal with the problem, is there?"

"Then we will have to find a way to distract Star Fox, as well." Admiral Silversmith suggested.

"AND?" Dash growled.

"What other planets could we strike that would hit a soft spot on McCloud's little heart?"

The room fell silent, until Crane spoke again. "That pathetic little backwater Sauria. However, can we afford to send the extra forces? We will need the full might of our fleet to begin the sweep at Macbeth."

"Leave that to me." Dash said, curling back into a heinous smirk.

**Aboard the Indignation**

**Skye's Temporary Quarters**

From his laptop, Skye monitored the entire conversation from the security feed in Silversmith's ready room. Every word he listened to carefully, and began taking notes. The first advantage to being in the enemy's jaws finally began to show itself four days after arriving aboard the immense ship. What he even amazed himself with, is that he managed to do all of this while evading the hawk-like security measures of the ship's onboard AI, which he had yet to identify. The snow leopard could have sworn he had slipped up at least once or twice though, but he supposed he was over reacting. It would have been his second stroke of luck that day; Admiral Silversmith didn't report having Skye onboard the Indignation, not realizing that Dash would want him dead. His cover barely remained. He imagined he would be getting questioned about the ideal soon, the Indignation's crew were in the assumed understanding that Skye had succeeded on his mission, he doubted he would be welcome here much longer.

Despite this temporary success, he still didn't have a plan on how he was going to stop the Indignation when it made it's move on Macbeth. He shut his laptop, and laid down on the extravagant bed that was made available to him. He felt another presence in the room; one that sent a shiver down his spine. "Getting paranoid…" he spoke aloud to himself.

"No, that feeling was well founded." a female voice said. He practically jumped off the bed and rolled to the far wall pulling out a blaster at the source of the sound by reflex. Standing there was the strangest person he had ever seen. It was almost like she were just a semi-transparent tiger of pink light. No seductive features made themselves available to his eyes despite the fact she was not wearing any clothes; it was like some kind of skeletal hologram. The only really unique feature about this "woman" was her short cropped hair with a cute, longer bang hanging down the front. "The fuck?" he said.

"I'm the ships AI, Skye. Thought I would come down and say you're not as good as you think you are."

He sighed, dropping the blaster knowing it would be ineffective. "I knew I screwed up. Going to turn me in now?"

"No, actually."

Skye shot her a puzzled gaze. "Why not?"

The holographic woman sat down beside him in the corner of the room. "I wasn't always an AI, Skye. I was a normal girl once. I was a military engineer, and like an idiot, I got involved with one of Dash's sick bio weapon projects. As soon as it was finished, rather than allow someone like me to have such sensitive information available to anyone who would try to capture me…"

"They turned you into an AI? How the hell did they manage that?"

"Even I didn't know the specifics of the procedure. All I know is, here I am practically running the Indignation on my own. The size of this ship should have had it crewed by 100,000 people, not 14,000."

"You want revenge on them then?"

"Just because I'm an AI doesn't mean I don't have my sentience anymore. I definitely want to get back at them. I read everything on your laptop so I KNOW you're working as a double agent now, and I want to know how I can help."

Skye's mind raced with all of the possibilities in mind. He wouldn't even have to be aboard the Indignation to take it down now, so he could work to stop one of their plans to distract Star Fox and the General. "Before we get this far, what's your name?"

"Victoria, Victoria Trace."

"Nice to meet you." He stood up from their awkward seat in the corner and sat on his bed. "I can think of a million things I could use you for actually, this encounter is an incredible stroke of luck for me. As you might know, they will want me dead or at least off this ship soon when the news spreads that I actually didn't kill Star Fox."

"Wait…" she said, standing up again. "First, you wanna tell me what happened?"

He sighed, knowing it was best to get her as buttered up as he could if he wanted to rely on her for his plans. He looked to the floor, pulling up what he tried to force into memory over the past four days, and he explained, beginning to end, everything that happened on the 6th. Everything from the headache he woke up with to throwing the detonator in the polluted oceans of Zoness. She sat and listened to every word. With the little it had accomplished, she wrapped her holographic arm around his shoulder. He couldn't feel it, but the sentiment was appreciated anyway.

"I… Had no idea… I thought you were just doing this all out of guilt."

"No, the team was like family to me. I swear I'll hunt Dash to the edges of the galaxy to make him pay for putting me through that."

"I'll help any way I can Skye, I want my revenge too. Do you have a plan?"

"I do, but I'm not going to be here for it." He walked over to his laptop again and flipped it open. "I'm not going to be here because I'm going to be dealing with the kidnapping attempt on Lucy Hare. I need to get Peppy's attention; and I'm going to do that by assisting the team he will inevitably send to her rescue, and directly confront whoever is in command. I will tell them everything about the Indignation and Dash's plans for Sauria, and then they go back to tell Peppy, allowing him time to prepare."

"What about Sauria? Star Fox will have to go there either way…"

"Yes, they will, but they won't be needed at Macbeth, because you are going to take the Indignation out of the fight."

Her eyebrows raised. "They'll just delete me if I try something like that."

"Before I leave in pursuit of the kidnapping team, I will set up as many firewalls around you as I can. I will send a signal to you somehow once the fight starts, and you're going to cut the life support to the whole ship, killing the whole crew. In the event some of their engineers survive long enough to try to prevent you from doing this, my security measures should hold them back long enough for them to die."

"Kill the entire crew…? That seems a little extreme…."

"There is no extreme in war, Victoria. This is what needs to be done. Once the Indignation is pacified, the Cornerians will capture it, and I will surrender myself to their judgment, using the capturing of this ship and the assistance in the rescue of Lucy Hare as leverage to get them to accept me back… At that point, it'll be their choice whether to take me back or not."

The room fell perfectly silent, until she sat down beside him again. "Then what happens to me?"

"They will want to use the Indignation, and they'll certainly need you to run it…" Then he stopped to think for a moment. "Is your actual body still intact?"

"Yes, it's kept in Cryogenic stasis onboard."

"If that's the case, once this war is over we might be able to get your body back."

"… I'd like that." she smiled, but suddenly her ears perked up and her face turned serious again. "I just got readings that the special ops team assigned with capturing Lucy Hare has just left."

He stood, and went to assemble his guns. "Any idea where they're planning to keep her?"

"Yes, it's a radiation-piercing scanner facility in Sector Z."

"Hmph, they make it too easy." Skye said, sliding a 10 mm clip into his suppressed pistol before sliding it in a holster on his belt. He hesitated before brining his rifle, the ancient (but very well kept) AS50 sniper rifle was a 50 caliber beast that he had heavily modified in all of his time with it, but he wouldn't need it. It would only weigh him down. If the whole operation turned out to be a success, the rifle would be here waiting for him once the Indignation fell into Cornerian hands. He left it there. He did however, bring Mina's sword, a secondary 10 inch blade in a holster on the other side of his belt, and a blaster across his lower back for good measure. "Can you hide my Arwing on sensors if I took it out right now?"

"Can't help it if they watch you leave."

"Then again I suppose it matters little; I won't be coming back here until the fight starts anyway. Can you at least disable alarms until I leave so I don't get blasted immediately upon departure?"

"That I can do."

He stepped towards the door, but stopped. "Before I go, I want to say goodbye, and thank you. In all likelihood I won't survive this."

"Good luck, Skye, and thank you too."

He nodded, and walked out of his quarters. The first person he saw heading towards the transport platform was a freshly uniformed officer, who shot him an odd look. "You look like you're packed for a war, Greyson."

"Maybe I am." he remarked, stepping on the platform. "Don't worry, I just carry them out of habit." Not giving the officer time to reflect upon this, he hit a few keys on the holographic console that appeared, and the platform whizzed off in the direction of the fighter bay where his Arwing was kept. He had taken this trip multiple times over the last four days, going to the mess hall for his meals and checking up on his Arwing (checking for sabotage). The marvel of the ship's design wore off rather quickly.

When he reached his destination, he was pleased to discover the docking bay was more or less empty other than a couple of mechanics running routine checks on the fighters of bay 12. The Assassin sat as he left it in the far corner, ready for launch at a moments notice. The mechanics watched him walk in, but he ignored him as he headed to his Arwing.

One decided it was his business though; a scruffy looking sheepdog waddled up to him as he approached his Arwing. "Hey, where you off to?"

"That's none of your business, frankly."

"Hey, I was just ordered to ask if you came down, and not let you leave without the bridge's permission. Don't shoot the messenger but, I can't let you go."

Without emotion or hesitation, Skye pulled out his pistol and held it pointing right between the dog's eyes. They shot wide open. Skye said calmly. "Give me one good reason not to shoot the messenger, if you dare tell the bridge."

The sheepdog just stayed silent, staring at the barrel of the weapon. Skye chose to ignore the buffoon and get out of here before one of his friends could run and tell the marines what was going on. Skye jumped into the cockpit holstering his pistol, and began running through his pre-flight checklist. Just when he thought things were going perfect he saw a group of troops -all armed to the teeth- run into the docking bay with weapons posed on the fighter. Skye didn't care, his shields were already up.

They began to fire but the bolts of energy just bounced off the Assassin's shields as it lifted off towards the magcon field. As soon as he was safely in space he goosed the thrusters to put as much distance between himself and the Indignation as he could. Typically, its closer batteries began to fire on him as he gained distance. None came even close to scoring a hit on the nimble fighter, he was far enough away that the assortment of lasers had no hope of striking him down. "Good luck, Victoria." he whispered, as the Assassin's onboard hyperdrive flung him towards the distant Zoness.

**CUS Patriot, General's Quarters**

**Orbit of Macbeth**

**August 11th, 12:23 PM Lylat Standard Time**

Peppy sat alone at his desk in his extravagant quarters aboard the Patriot enjoying his lunch; a hamburger he had picked up from the mess hall on his way back here from the bridge. It had been disturbingly quiet over the last few days; no spy insurrections, random ambushes, and it appeared there weren't any Venomian ships left behind the Cornerian lines. All seemed to be going well; but who knew what a cornered beast would do. Peppy was getting increasingly paranoid over the last week; Dash was going to make a move and he knew it, it was just a matter of when.

Whenever it was going to be, it was going to be soon. He had been receiving reports that the base down on the surface would be ready to take control of the planetary defense guns again soon; and then there would be no chance for a Venomian fleet to take back the planet. Three days was all it would be, and the tension tightened up with each passing hour.

As he was checking the positions of all of his active ships across the system on his laptop, he was interrupted by a beeping from the walls of his room. "General Hare here."

"Sir, incoming communication from the enemy!"

Peppy dropped his burger and jumped out of his seat, heading towards the bridge with all due haste. A minute and a half and he was there. The screen lit up with his arrival on the bridge; it was none other than the ugly mug of Dash Bowman. "Greetings, Mr. Hare. I must congratulate you on your tactics so far."

"Thank you, I wish I could say the same, you slimy ass hole. Fichina was a dirty trick."

The ape gritted his teeth. "I am afraid your successes are about to come to an end, however. You see, this slimy ass hole has one more nasty trick up his sleeve. Or to be more blunt, your daughter."

It was at that moment where Peppy's fears were realized; Dash had not only made a move, but it was close to home. He had Lucy. His voice was dark and barbaric, as if the old hare would tear the ape to shreds with his bare hands. "I swear I'll kill you for this."

"Oh she's safe, for now. If you don't come to the coordinates I'm sending you now within the next day, I will kill her. There will be no bargaining on this matter."

Before Peppy could shoot back, the screen winked out. He sunk to his knees and a tear dropped from his eye. His second in command, a Lynx called Commander Drake Tuttle, jumped to his side and helped him up. "Sir, what are we gonna do?"

He stood up, and sat back in his captains chair. Drake stood beside him, awaiting his hero's orders. Despite his rage against Dash and fear for his daughter, Peppy found it within himself to think of the situation rationally. "It's obviously a trap, probably meant to get the Patriot out of the way while they attack us here. All of my logic says not to go but…"

"Sir, if I may, we have people trained for this sort of thing exactly."

"Blackhook team…"

Drake nodded. "They're good men sir, we can trust them to get the job done. Veterans, all of them."

"I guess we don't have another choice, do we?"

Blackhook squadron was invented by Tuttle when the rising need of covert operations team became more and more apparent. While the entire project was rather rushed, candidates for the elite squadron were chosen and tested through grueling expectations and perquisites. They needed a team that could pull off things like Star Fox's raid on the Macbeth ground base, and Blackhook was the answer. Drake kept in close contact with their leader, Captain Sabre Lionidis, almost constantly.

Peppy sighed. "I hope you're right, Commander. Put me in contact with whoever is in charge, I want them deployed immediately."

"Understood." He didn't waste a second. The light of the bridge reflecting off his spotless white officer's uniform as the brown furred Lynx turned tail out the sliding doors in the rear of the room. He was almost jogging down the hall back to his quarters, heads were turned in wonder of what the rush was about as he practically flew around a corner nearly knocking down a passing marine.

He skidded into his room as soon as the door slid open for him, and dropped into his desk chair. His console was already running, and he cycled through his MilitaryNet contact list, finding Captain Sabre Lionidis right away.

The computer rapidly attempted different forms of communication that were listed to contact him; PDA, personal view screen, phone, PC chat, and then he answered his screen. The green furred lion looked ruffled, a cigar jutting out between his teeth. The captain wasn't even wearing a shirt, he must have been sleeping. Noticing his screen turn on as he darted around the room, he turned to face it. "The hell? Commander! Every phone in my damn quarters just lit up. Some kind of emergency?"

"Correct, Captain. I need your squad assembled and aboard the Patriot in no more than 3 hours; sorry for the short notice, but we have a top priority hostage situation on our hands. Details will be granted on site. Haul ass, soldier."

Sabre threw his cigar into an ash bin in the corner of his room and hastily pulled a bland green t-shirt on. "Got it, I'll be there in two. Lionidis out."

**Delta 12 Scanner Station, Sector Z**

**4 Hours Later, 4:37 PM Lylat Standard Time**

Thanks to the extremely lucky assistance of Victoria to deal with the Indignation, Skye was able to turn his full attention to the issue at hand. He had originally thought Dash would just try to bash Macbeth with the Indignation and it's accompanying fleet, but it appears he needed to make sure that the Patriot and Star Fox were out of the way as well. Now he had gone and kidnapped Peppy's daughter Lucy in an attempt to lead him away from Macbeth long enough for the attack to begin. Now that he didn't need to be aboard the Indignation, he could make sure that the Patriot was still at Macbeth by lending them a hand…

Skye had beat the team assigned to kidnap Lucy to the station where they planned on keeping her prisoner. He hid the Arwing in one of the smaller, out of the way docking bays and cut life support so that any curious Venomian spies didn't stumble upon his presence by finding the Assassin. All Skye had to do now was wait in the security room of the station and watch for the team to come with their payload, kill them all off, and await the inevitable rescue effort, so Skye would finally have the chance to relay a message to the Cornerians.

He was ready for the Venomians arrival. He wore a full black stealth suit that covered everything but his head, and it had plenty of pockets and holsters for his pistol, blaster, 10-inch field dagger, and of course his black hilted sword. Having sat almost completely still for 3 hours, finally his targets arrived. One of the monitors in the small dark room showed a boxy-looking troop transport land in one of the docking bays. The bottom-front of it opened into a ramp, and out came 8 soldiers, two of them flanking a blindfolded Lucy Hare.

Now all he had to do was wait for them to take individual positions throughout the complex, and he would kill them one by one. First, he had to secure Lucy; if they noticed any of their troops no longer reporting they would probably kill her out of paranoia. 6 of them split up, and two brought Lucy into what looked like a mess room. One of them was heading to the very room he was in.

He shut down all of the monitors to make it look like he were never there, and snuck out before the troop got there. He took careful note of where each of the soldiers stopped to take their rounds. Skye's first stop: Lucy's location. He tuned his communicator slowly until he picked up their frequency.

"…(_static)_…. -ing in, sir. No contact."

"Seven reporting, no contact."

"Eight, all clear."

"Nine; nothing over here."

In his long minutes of waiting he memorized the schematics of the station, and knew exactly how to get to each of the soldiers locations. Protocol on a guard-duty mission was to report in every ten minutes; that was how long he would have until the other hostiles realized that Lucy was loose when the two soon-to-be-dead operatives would fail to report.

Going around a corner to the elevator that would bring him to the barracks level, he didn't break stride as he spotted his first target. Before the tiger could raise one hand to his communicator and fire his blaster in the other, the snap of Skye's pistol put a nice neat hole in his head. The corpse dropped, and didn't manage to get a message out. He just walked past the corpse to the elevator emotionlessly. He tapped a few keys on the control pad and the elevator began it's decent 3 floors down.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The blue scaled chameleon known as Sergeant Craig Finch heard the elevator coming; orders were not to leave their posts. For some reason, his tiger comrade Norman had failed to follow that order, and was coming down the elevator. _Perhaps he needs a lesson in obedience, that insolent kitten." _he thought to himself, raising his blaster at the door. _Just scare him a bit, that's all I'm gonna do, as much as I would love to perforate the git."_

When the door slid open, it wasn't Norman standing there at all; this cat was not orange, it was white, and he was holding a small pistol out in his direction.

_SNAP!_

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Skye shook his head as he passed the dead chameleon, his blood seeping across the metallic floor. "_Pathetic," _he thought to himself walking towards the mess hall. _"They call themselves special operatives, what a laugh."_ Off the floor, Skye took the dead chameleons blaster, and checked his wrist PDA. 6 minutes to go until the next report, and he was about a 2 minute walk away from the mess. He would make good time. He held a blaster in each hand and continued towards his objective.

He quieted his footsteps as he reached the double doors with the green sign "MESS HALL" above it. They wouldn't be ready for him, giving him the advantage he needed to get the first shots. He raised his blasters, and the doors slid open. To slow down the alarm in the two troop's minds he walked instead of dashing in.

His eyes caught their targets instantly, the one on the left of Lucy raised his rifle first, only to meet a loud bang as a burning hole was left in his chest, sending the body flying back. The other one was slow picking up his rifle from the table, and a shot from Skye's right hand blaster caught him in the shoulder, knocking him back. Skye pounced onto the closest table to get a view on the fallen troop, and fired both blasters several more times into the corpse. The hare screamed and ducked down. The mess hall doors shut behind him.

He heard in his communicator. "Captain? Captain McClain? Three here, I've just reached the security room.. Bringing up the…What the fuck is tha-… HOLY SHI--!" the sentence was broken off by a deafening explosion followed by static. Skye had rigged the security room so they wouldn't be able to identify him or the threat they faced using the security cameras. Sure their whole team now knew someone was there, but they had no idea who or how many.

Skye threw aside the chameleons blaster and holstered his own, crouching to the frightened hares side. "Ms. Hare? My name is Skye Greyson, I'm here to rescue you."

Her breathing calmed and she sat down normally, opening her eyes nervously up to the snow leopard. She must have been abducted right during a class, because she was wearing a blue business suit that had the Zoness University crest on it's breast, and a matching long skirt and black high heels. "Did… Did my father send you?"

"No, but he did send someone, which is what I'm counting on. I simply made it here first, there is a message I need to give to whoever he does send, which is for their ears only."

"Well, thank you anyway. I thought those goons would kill me for sure."

More comm traffic began to burst over the headset loudly into his ear. "8 here, the security room blew with 3 inside it, I think this is a fucking trap!" A young and nervous male voice, probably as green as grass.

"Nine here, I found 6 and 7 both dead at their posts. 1 and 2, report, bogey may be heading your way." A deeper, more professional male voice. Probably the second in command.

Skye remained silent "Nine" tried again." I repeat, 1 and 2 report in."

Another pause.

"It's official, the hostage is no longer secure. All troops report by station, seniority puts me in command. Move to the mess hall on the double. Watch for hostiles, safeties off."

"Four, heading to target." A female voice, steady and confident.

"Five, on my way." Another nervous wreck.

"Eight, I'm with you Lieutenant."

Skye smirked to himself, only four more of them left, and whoever Peppy was sending hadn't even arrived yet. "Stay down, Ms Hare, the rest of them are heading this way." he said to her, tipping up one of the metal tables towards the door to make temporary cover.

"Just call me Lucy, okay?" She said, picking up the blaster Skye had cast aside. He looked at her quizzically. "You are trained with a blaster?"

"I'm the supreme general's daughter, of course I am."

"Of course you are, silly me."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The whine of the dropship's engines were the only thing in the docking bay it had landed in, as soon as it touched ground it's cloaking device came offline and with a crackle of electricity the bird-like ship was visible in the bay. It looked like a small passenger jet with swiveling wings and engines, pivoting machine guns at the wingtips. The rear ramp slid open. The 6 fully armor clad soldiers rushed out of it and took kneeling positions, pointing their various weapons in different directions making sure all corners were covered, the dropship shut down it's engines, bringing the room to silence once more.

The green furred lion Sabre in his black padded armor was the first to stand, letting his suppressed assault rifle hang by it's shoulder straps as he was heading towards the doors out of the bay. His gruff voice and impacts of boot on metal breaking the silence. "Clear, report readiness, Blackhook."

A red furred Fox was the next to stand, he was carrying a silenced sub machine gun and an extra backpack filled with explosives which matched the colour of his Blackhook squadron armor. His name was Lieutenant Jack Latham. "Two, ready." He got in single file behind his leader.

Next was a grey and black feathered hawk named Ian Mitchell, carrying a similar silenced assault rifle as Sabre, but his also had an assault scope on the sight rail. He was the teams sniper, but he had this closer-quarters tool for operations like this. "Three; ready to roll."

The fourth and fifth troops stood together. "Four" was a white furred, floppy eared female dog, with a more cheerful expression than one would expect on an efficient killer. Her name was Fay Spaniel. She cradled a shotgun in her arms, and was the tech and hacking expert. Despite Sabre's protests (and often higher ranked officers) she refused to go into battle without her "lucky" red ribbon in her curly hair. "Four is good to go."

The last was the team's stealth expert, Miyu Clawford, an orange furred lynx. She also carried a suppressed sub machine gun, as well as two 8-inch blades holstered on each hip. The light reflection that was apparent on the other troops armor was absent on hers, an extra outer coat being made of a different material allowing for even better stealth potential. She and Fay were also the team's pilots, often being the pilot of their dropship or other escape vehicle, and sometimes making use of stolen fighters in more heated situations. "Five, I'm all good."

**((Authors Notes: Oh I so went there.))**

"Right" he grunted. "Eyes sharp, we don't know how many of them are here. Jack's with me, Ian goes with Fay, Miyu will sneak around on her own. Find the hostage and report any hostiles, or hints at her location."

Sabre and Jack poked around the left and right corners out of the docking bay doors in perfect synch, checking for hostiles; it was quiet. All 5 poured in and began exploring the complex, Sabre, Jack and Miyu going to the right where there was an elevator further down, Ian and Fay going left to explore the level they were on.

Sabre, Jack and Miyu kept their rifles up as they crept down the hallway, taking turns checking each corner leap-frog style. Miyu took a peek around the corner closest to the elevator with her SMG making itself known first. While she didn't see anything. she could faintly hear rushed footsteps. "I think I have contact, sir. I can hear them but no visual."

Sabre rushed across the hall and took a position at the other corner. Jack stayed behind and watched their backs from the way they came, and listened for the elevator. Sabre perked his ears. "You're right, five, I can hear 'em."

"Rules of engagement sir?" the British accent of Jack asked.

"Drop the fucks on sight."

As if on que, two fully green-armored troopers shot around a corner and skidded to a halt, their helmets turning as one leaped around the previous corner. Sabre was looking down his iron sights, and took a shot at the one who hadn't reacted quickly enough. The impact took the poor fool of his feet, sending him sprawling to the floor. Sabre stayed where he was and beckoned Miyu to move up, watching the corner the trooper had run from.

She did, rushing up towards that corner. "Flash out," she said, unclipping the cylindrical grenade in question from her belt and throwing it around the corner. She stopped before going around it, and the bright flash illuminated her path. She heard a guy scream. She turned around the corner and found the idiot rolling on the ground like a kid who was afraid of the dark. A burst from her SMG put him down. "Two hostiles eliminated."

"Good," Sabre said. "Five, continue heading down that hallway and report any hostile activity remaining on this floor. Me and Two are going to continue down a level."

"Aye, Captain."

They did just that, rushing into the elevator. They kept their rifles pointed at the doors as it descended to the next floor down. Once the slid open, it was revealed to be perfectly clear. Sabre and Jack rushed down the hallway, quickly leapfrog checking corners as they went, looking for the location of the VIP, Lucy Hare.

They quickly found more hostiles. They began to creep silently, overhearing two voices around the next corner… "We don't know what will be in there, so be ready."

"I don't hear anything, maybe it was just the one?"

"Chances are they might have left, we shouldn't waste any mo-…" the second voice was interrupted by seeing his comrade's helmet spray blood out of it as it went limp. He frantically dived for cover in a door across the hall, but he felt the impact of heavy bullet rounds slam into his chest as he dove.

Sabre and Jack jumped around the corner, heading to the door they were talking about. "One here, I think we found our VIP. Stand by." The door hissed open for them and their rifles were raised. There were two people in there; Lucy Hare had a blaster mounted on an upturned table, and another figure, a Snow Leopard he didn't recognize was there with her. Sabre stood still with his rifle trained on the cat, Jack as well. "Friend or foe?" the lion said.

"Friend." replied, setting down his blaster. "Are you in command of the rescue unit?"

"Yeah." Sabre said, leaving his rifle up.

"There is little time then. I need to talk to you."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

All of Blackhook squadron sat in the mess hall with Skye and Lucy, having confirmed the deaths of all of the Venomian operatives. Skye had just finished explaining everything that had happened up until then, and Sabre scarcely believed it. "So what then, what's going to happen when this super ship drops in on Macbeth?"

"I have measures put into place that will guarantee it being disabled upon the battle beginning."

"Do you want to come back with us or what?"

"No, my Arwing is waiting for me, I will be taking it to a secure location until I can board the Indignation and present myself to Star Fox proper. This I would rather you not tell anyone; if anyone asks, I just disappeared."

"And what if the general doesn't believe my magically gained intel?"

"Then he will when the Indignation and it's accompanying fleet drop right on top of him. Plus, I believe he may already know."

"Well, whatever then. Good luck to ya."

"Thank you." Skye stood up and holstered his blaster, heading out of the mess hall. Sabre stood up as well. "Alright miss Hare, we're gonna to get you out of here. We have a drop ship waiting to go."

"Okay." she said, standing up with the rest of Blackhook squadron as they made their way to the door.

**Two Hours Later, 7:14 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Great Fox II, Macbeth Orbit**

**Sparring Room**

Fox could feel sweat drip down from his forehead during the short pause in which his and Krystal's staff's were locked together. She wasn't holding back anything; the harder she fought against him, the quicker his staff would learn. His grey tank top was loose and allowed the breeze of the ships air filters working to keep him slightly cool; but his track pants offered no such luxury. After what seemed like a whole minute, she broke off and stepped back. "You're getting better Fox, looks like you didn't forget everything after all."

He huffed as he sat down in the boxing ring that made up one of the 4 corners of the sparring room. Other than his heavy breathing, Mina's fists impacting the simulated flesh punching bags at the other side of the room. Krystal didn't even seem tired as she spun her staff around casually.

The annoying wall beeped at them though, interrupting their little spar. "INCOMING MESSAGE FROM PEPPY HARE, HIGH PRIORTY."

Fox rolled his eyes. "Always high priority with that guy. I'll take it up in the bridge." he said, wiping the sweat off his brow and standing up.

Krystal approached him and kissed him on the cheek. "Another time then, love."

They didn't bother changing, the two just headed up to the bridge alone at first, but then they realized that Mina had followed them up. Just before they got to the bridge, Fox turned around. "Mina? What's up?"

She was looking at the floor. "Just thought maybe he had some news."

Fox nodded in understanding as the bridge doors yielded for the three pilots. Rob was waddling across the bridge as Fox lept over the back of his captains chair and landed in it smoothly. Krystal stood behind him, and Mina less gracefully took the next seat over. The view of the planet below turned into a view of Peppy, alongside his daughter Lucy. Fox grinned. "I take it the rescue mission was a success?"

"It was, and it proved to be a source of valuable intel as well. More information about the imminent attack."

"Spill the beans, General."

Peppy sat down in his own captains seat, noticeably more regal than the one Fox sat in. "They wanted a two pronged distraction, getting both me and you off of the scene while they took Macbeth. Their one for me obviously backfired but…"

"What did they have planned for us?"

"The news was rather disturbing, but apparently they plan on attacking Sauria only hours before they hit Macbeth, so that you will be on the other side of Lylat when the chaos begins."

Fox buried his face in his paw. "Damnit, even if we know there's little we can do about that." He looked up to Krystal. "We would have to go either way."

"That's where we have a contingency plan, Fox. You see, I've recently been contacted by Star Wolf, they were looking for work…"

"You're not serious."

"I am."

"So you call them up to deal with the situation at Sauria while we stay here and be able to defend Macbeth?"

"That's exactly my plan."

Fox grinned, and Krystal sat down beside him, looking relieved. Mina spoke up. "Just one question sir… Where did all of this intel come from?"

Peppy paused, and frowned. "This is where things get shaky. Apparently the intel was supplied by none other than Skye Greyson."

Fox almost choked, and all three of them shot their eyes wide open. "WHAT!?"

"Apparently, he is working as a double agent. Considering the events of last week… You can understand this story is obviously unstable at best."

A glimmer of hope slipped into Mina's mind, a hope that Skye wasn't what he made himself out to be on Zoness. A tear slipped down her cheek. "Let's hope for the best."

"That's all we can do really," Peppy groaned. "In the meantime, we're preparing for the imminent attack. It could even be as early as tomorrow, so I suggest you be prepared, Fox. Peppy out."

Fox was still staring in shock at the view screen even after the image of Macbeth had returned to it.

**((Authors Notes: I tried to redeem this one with a bit of action, hope you guys liked. Ill be doing chapter 13 of this before chapter 2 of Indignant Past simply because I don't really have much inspiration for that right now… Thanks for reading, and be sure to review! P.S: Oh wow, I added like, 5 OC's this chapter. Damnit.))**


	14. Chapter 13: That Tingly Feeling

**Chapter 13: That Tingly Feeling…**

**August 12th, 8:12 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**Lupinhold: Wolf's Quarters**

Wolf O'Donnell had awoken at 8 AM as he had the day before, as 'ordered' by his temporary telepathy instructor Dawn. Despite waking him up at ungodly-O-clock in the morning he enjoyed the extra pastime, and his progress was remarkable. It already took significantly more effort for Dawn to be able to read his deeper thoughts, but his surface self-conversation was still an open book.

He was dressed in a sleeveless black vest and matching jeans, sitting on his bed, waiting for the light-blue furred lupine to visit him. He was becoming more attracted to her with each passing day; the way she kept her hair in a pony tail, but still rebelliously messy. Her cocky smirk whenever she knew she had the advantage; on the surface she was a professional killer, but he knew her enjoyment for her work lead far deeper than that. Her bloodlust for battle excited him.

It wasn't long after 8:10 until the door hissed open to grant her entrance. She was dressed differently today; he had seen Krystal in a similar outfit once or twice; Her top looked like three horizontal black lines of cloth connected by a vertical one down her front; one crossing her upper chest, the second her breasts (obviously) and the last over her belly button. The front band was wrapped around her neck and also went down her back, both ends connected to a belt that held a half-dress like sheet that only covered her right leg. Her left leg, and her black underwear beneath, were exposed. It reminded him of Krystal's Cerinian outfit, but a bit more modern. Matching black sandals were on her feet, and her hair was up in its usual blue ponytail. Two large rings circled her left wrist.

"Lookin' good!" Wolf remarked with a smirk.

"Don't get too distracted, flyboy, they call this my combat gown."

"What, you going to beat me up if I lose?"

"Yes, actually."

The serious tone of her voice made him lose all thoughts of caressing that gorgeous body right on the spot. "Fine, let's get started."

She sat beside him on the bed. "Now, start like you did yesterday, plunge yourself into daydream. Today were going to work on something simple, preventing my control. It comes naturally to the strong willed, and it will give you good practice when it comes to detecting my efforts of telepathy."

He did as he was told, and let his imagination run wild. He was suddenly in his cockpit, his instinct kicked in and he checked the radar of his Wolfen. Another blip on the radar, and it was red; a second Wolfen. He heard Dawns voice in the dream. "I'm in that ship, Wolf. Shoot me down before I shoot you down."

She was behind him. He juked and jinked as lasers pinged against his shields while checking the generator; 50%. "Come now, you know that's wrong, why can't you change your own dream?"

He tried, but it was as though that was the actual problem. It was actually down to half. "No." he said to himself. "It should be at 75%."

And it was.

"Good…." she said to him. Suddenly there was a big red button on his dash that normally wasn't there. "That's the self destruct button, Wolf. Press it and you die."

For some reason, his hand was reaching for it. He couldn't control it. He knew not to press that button but his hand reached for it anyway, and he pressed it. That was when he took control; there was no self destruct function on the Wolfen. That button would do nothing.

And it did nothing.

Suddenly he was back in his quarters. "A good start." she said. "We need to get you to the point where you can stop any change from happening in your mind in the first place, but you need to be able to detect my attempts to do that. We can start with-" She was cut off with a beeping from Wolf's console.

He grunted, heading over to it. "I better get that." after hitting a few keys, Peppy Hare's face appeared on his console. "O'Donnell, I have a job for you."

"That was quick." he said, smirking.

"We have word that there's going to be a Venomian force heading into the planet Sauria to deal out a distraction for their main force moving to Macbeth sometime today or tomorrow, we'll need you to hold down the fort there until the battle here takes place."

"What are we getting paid?"

"Five hundred thousand credits to each of your team members the moment the battle is over, plus any required repair costs."

"Done."

The screen winked out, and Wolf smirked. "Isn't that just dandy? First job from the old bunny we get involves doing what we intended to do anyway, and for two and a half million credits."

"Certainly a good start, but it appears we won't be able to continue your training for today."

"You're right, I better look over the Wolfen. Tell the rest of the team, would you? I'm gonna call the Executor."

"You got it, boss." she said, waving her tail seductively while walking out. He could swear she did it just to patronize him. Still on his laptop, he opened his communications interface and opened a channel to the bridge of the Executor. "Halsey, we got a job."

**An Hour and a Half Later**

**Saurian Orbit**

The Wolfens were separately flying in orbit of the planet at equal intervals, keeping a constant comm channel open, waiting for the imminent Venomian threat. Ben had installed a little source of entertainment for them; a Euchre program, an ancient card game that was typically played between two pairs sitting across from each other. In the five fighters though, they were just playing with a computer display on their dashboard computers. Wolf was paired with Panther, Ben with Bryce. Dawn was just observing, trying to learn the game through observation.

It was a good game too, tied 9-9, 2 tricks for Wolf and Panther, one for Ben and Bryce. Ben had made the suit clubs by picking up the jack, which was the most powerful card on the field.

He had a difficult decision to make; the king of diamonds was down, Bryce laid it, and it was now Wolf's turn. His two remaining cards were the ace of diamonds and the jack of spades; one would think this is a good spot to be in; having the highest card of the current suit, and the second most powerful card in the left bower. (The order was jack of trump highest, jack of the paired suit, ace down to 9, and 8 through 2 wasn't used in the game.) He only needed to take one trick to get the Euchre and win the game; he knew that Ben still had the jack of clubs, but the question was, if he played his ace of diamonds on Bryce's king and got the lead in the trick, would it lure Ben out to use his jack, leaving the next trick for Wolf's jack of spades?

What could happen is Wolf could play the ace, and Ben could have another spade left to play, which would trump his diamond and leave his jack to take the last trick for sure. His other option would be to wallop the king of diamonds with his jack now, forcing Ben to bring out his jack now, and hope to win the trick after that with an ace of diamonds. This had a high chance of failure; if anything other than diamonds was led (which was very likely considering the king was gone, and he had the ace) Wolf would lose the game right there.

He decided to play his ace. Ben was next, he had to take this trick; was it going to be with the jack, or any other spade?

To Wolf's delight, Ben put down the jack of clubs. Panther threw off a nine of hearts onto that, and Wolf laid down his jack of spades, signaling the automatic win of the next trick, and the end of the game. Ben's last card was a weak Queen of hearts. "That's game, boys."

"Damnit, Bryce couldn't you have laid anything better than a diamond?"

"Show you for making it clubs."

"I had 3 and one of them was the bower, what would you have made it?"

"I had 5 diamonds with both bowers"

"Then why the fuck didn't you make it?"

"You didn't give me the chance, you dolt. Clubs was up, I wasn't gonna make you pick that shit up, would have had to go alone with no trump."

Panther sounded frustrated. "I had a damn heart hand."

**((AN: If you don't know how to play Euchre, learn it! Most fun card game of them all, period. It's a classic.))**

The conversation was interrupted by an annoying beeping from his dashboard, he closed the game screen and bought up his radar, a large red blip had jumped into system. "Cut the chatter, we have company boys and girls!" He goosed his thrusters, heading for the target.

His com board lit up with the image of the white cat Captain Halsey on the bridge of the Executor. "Executor, moving to engage; we have one Venomian dreadnaught on sensors, it looks like it's refitted for large scale deployment and anti-fighter action. There are fighters pouring out of its bays, an immense bay on the topside is starting to open, it's accelerating at the planet nose first."

"Stop it, put yourself between that ship and the planet if you have to, I have a bad feeling of what's gonna come out of that bay." Wolf grunted, blistering towards the ship, himself in formation with the other four Wolfens.

The ship was a design he had never seen before; It was huge, practically one long triangle with a big command deck near the stern. It was hell of a lot bigger than the normal battleships he was used to fighting. The bay that was opening was on the top deck near the bow, it looked like it could hold an entire ship on its own. As the Executor moved into position in front of it, the object that the ship concealed began to slowly ascend from the bay. The view was heavily obstructed by all of the fighters flying at them, but it looked like some kind of massive cannon.

"The Planet Cannon." Ben said in awe.

"You hacked their damn database already? I knew I kept you around for a reason."

"Wasn't even encoded, can you believe it? Just walked in and got schematics of the whole ship." Ben didn't even sound as though he was bragging, he was treating the accomplishment like it was taking candy from a baby. "It'll take about five minutes to charge, then it'll blow the entire planet to bits."

"Well, shit. Guess we better deal with it then." Wolf sighed.

"I have a weakness, it looks like there's one long corridor that we can fit a fighter through from the cannon bay all of the way to the warp core."

"Can you send me the map?"

"Let me go, boss, please?" Ben begged.

"Fine, go for it. Executor, concentrate your fire on that cannon, see if you can't knock it out. The rest of you, let's hit it's beam cannons."

"Oh by the way…" Ben added, "It's beam cannons are inoperable while the cannon is charging."

"The fighters, then."

A glow from the tip of the immense cannon began to appear, illuminating the cloud of ships that was converging on the five Wolfens. "Let's cover Ben 'till he can get inside, arrowhead formation. Go!"

He never told Dawn how the arrowhead formation works, but he figured it safe to assume she had pulled it from his mind. As he expected, all four of the fighters formed behind him, forming a wedge that pointed intimidatingly at the carrier.

**Bridge of the Carrier**

Recently promoted Admiral Nicholson, a sheepdog in his thirties, watched as the brand new Planet Cannon his carrier, the VIS Harbinger, prepared to destroy this backwater planet ruthlessly. In his way however was a cruiser size ship of a design he didn't recognize; it certainly wasn't the Great Fox he was told to expect.

"Sensors, report. What of that ship?"

A red fox turned to face him. "It's ID tags suggests that it's part of Star Wolf's fleet, sir. I can't get any more detailed information without a more clear scan, the cannon is interfering."

"Star Wolf, here? Star Fox was supposed to be here."

He didn't get a reply from his crew, it was obvious their attack was completely in vain, the diversion wasted. "Inform the Emperor at once, he must be made aware that Star Fox will be present at Macbeth."

His communications officer spoke up. "Too much interference from the cannon, sir!"

"Should I shut it down?" asked the goat at the tactical console.

"We have no reason to be here now, shut it down and set a course for Titania this instant!"

The sensors officer looked stunned. "Sir, five Wolfen class fighters heading straight for us, they may be trying to make their way into the skeletal corridors!"

"Five fighters versus a troop carrier? Wipe them out!"

"Sir, receiving a hail, from the lead Wolfen."

"On screen."

The image of Wolf O'Donnell with a sadistic grin was licking his lips at the Admiral and his bridge crew. "Come now, running already? I can understand a bit of fear but come now, where's your typical Venomian over confidence?"

"If you would prefer, I would be more than happy to test this cannon on your little asteroid."

"Oh, you know about my new base? Guess I can't let you leave alive either way, then." The image dissipated, and Nicholson was looking at a cloud of fighters again.

"Two hundred versus five, I don't care how good he is. Keep us in orbit until our fighters clean them up, I want to watch them die."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Wolf grinned stupidly, two hundred or more fighters turned his radar display into a big red mess, but it was him who had the advantage; all of those fighters were converging on him in a big clump; five well placed smart bombs would turn most of them into scrap. He only regretted not being able to see the look on that Venomian admiral's face.

"Lock bombs, ladies. Spread for maximum blast radius."

His targeting computer automatically displayed the lock coordinates of each of his other pilots, it was in a perfect five point star pattern. "Boom time." He hit the trigger on the pilots yoke.

The red trail of the incoming smart bomb didn't even phase the incoming attackers, and when four more joined them they still kept on their suicidal course with an overconfidence that would be their butchering hand. Space was lit up brilliantly with the five explosions, and Wolf watched in glee as much of the red on his radar dissipated like water evaporating out of the bottom of a hot plate.

There were so few left, in the confusion they just split off and ran. The five fighters continued unhindered through the debris field, some bits and pieces of former Venomian ships pinging off of his hull. Dawn was the only one not quivering in her seat with excitement. "So many lives lost, and for what?"

"For my entertainment, and 25 hundred thousand credits. Get used to it hot stuff." Wolf retorted over the comm. "Ben, go ahead and jump in. Executor, blow a few holes into that ship would you?"

"With pleasure, my lord." Halsey's voice purred over the channel, and several pinpricks of light from Wolf's prospective heralded 4 thick beams of light slamming into the shields of the ship. The bright wall looked like it nearly bent under the strain. The carrier began to turn away from the planet, four beam cannons lighting up on it's starboard side, having clear shots at the Executor. "Can we get out of the way now, sir?"

"That'd probably be a good idea," Wolf said whilst getting into range of the ship. Dozens of turrets of all different kinds opened up on him as he approached, but none accurate enough to get that one lucky shot that would vapourize him.

Before the carrier could get its shots off, the Executor made a quick maneuver that only a ship of its size could manage; using its bow/underside boosters it tipped itself towards the carrier, and jumped forward as fast as the ship could manage under it. The beam cannons being all along the top, no longer had an angle on the cruiser.

Ben began to sweat as he made the hardest part about the approach; the ships anti-fighter guns were all trained on him and the team. Flak rounds and laser fire chased him closely as he whipped across the Carriers deck, looping around the other side to take the opening into the massive bay that was still pulling the Cannon back in it's rightful place. As he righted himself towards the bay, he yelped to himself as a laser shot between his two port wings, causing his cockpit to shudder. "You alright?" Bryce asked him, forming on his wing. "Never better, my good friend."

He yelled into the comm as he approached the pit that marked his journey inside of the massive ship. "YEEEEEEEEEEEHAWWWWWWWW!" Bryce broke off from him, veering to provide more of a distraction for the lasers as Ben made his suicidal dive into the ships innards.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ben panted with excitement as he maneuvered through the tight halls of the ship. His dashboard gave him a comprehensive map of where he was going; he was going to go straight to the warp core and pump his other smart bomb into it. It was more than wide enough, he watched the stupid looks on the faces of the scurrying crew wandering the balconies lining the interior with amusement as he sped wildly, taking turns as necessary without even slowing down to think.

It wasn't long before he reached the core chamber. Despite his senseless taste for danger and violence, even he stopped to marvel the sight. A bright ball of light was nestled between two thick platforms sticking out of the roof and floor of the immense chamber respectively. The entire room was lined in brightly lit wiring and tubing that spread out from the core throughout the room, and the ship itself. While gawking at it, he absent mindedly armed a smart bomb.

As he made his first pass around it, suddenly the entire ship shook. The Executor must have been pounding on it; he had to work quick to get out in time. He gritted his teeth as suddenly three red blips entered the chamber with him. They were Wolfens.

"Greetings, Star Wolf member; allow us the opportunity to test Lylat's second most feared mercenary pilots in action. Shall we?"

"Go suck one, I'm gonna blow you fancy-talking mother fuckers to high hell right here and now. You ain't even worth the detour." He got his targeting reticule on the core, and it turned green with a confirmed lock.

He was too slow; apparently his fan club didn't like his greeting, and his fighter shook violently taking lasers from his assailant. It was time to get serious. He pulled the Wolfen into a loop turning to chase the three formed up Wolfens. Two of them broke off, but Ben kept on the last one. He tried to break off with his fellows, but Ben was quicker on the draw this time. His lasers began to take chunks out of the fighter.

He took a quick glance at his own radar once his target drifted on out of commission; they were both right on his ass. They would have predicted a summersault right away, of course; instead he only did half of one, spiraling into a U-Turn and spraying lasers at his pursuers in a head-to head. One got away without any scratches, but the other wasn't so lucky; his shields were slammed one too many times, and his rear-starboard wing was taken right off. Ben knew that wasn't the end of him, a Wolfen was still operational with as few as a single wing remaining. It was rumored that Fox McCloud managed to fly his Arwing through a combat mission with both of its wings missing on one occasion.

The lucky one kept up the chase, and was behind Ben again quickly enough. His shields started to buckle taking more fire from the rear, but with a boost he was able to put the core between himself and his attacker. Just when he thought he was safe enough to think up another counter attack, the other wounded Wolfen came around the other way.

Ben barely saw it coming, bright flashes of laser fire tore right through the front of his fighter. He could feel the shock of heat, and horrible pain, of shrapnel searing through his skin. He felt his right arm burning with the most intense pain he had ever felt, and couldn't move it. He couldn't bring himself to look at the damage, either.

He knew on the spot he wasn't going to make it, there were three things he could see; two fighters behind him, a shattered canopy window, and lots of blood. Everything else was blinded out by his pain. With his best efforts, he used his still working right arm to pull himself into line with the core. He felt a shudder as his ship was hit again, and he tried to keep wiggling the pilots yoke; the ship wouldn't; change direction.

It didn't matter; he was positioned right where he wanted himself. The smart bomb in his Wolfen was still armed, and would be enough to destabilize the core and destroy the ship. If he was going out, he was going with a hell of a bang.

At least the pain ended quickly.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Panther grunted, pulling his Wolfen out of a barrel roll that deflected a heavy laser bolt away from his precious fighter. "I'm getting detonations from within the ship, but I lost Ben's signal."

"The hell? It should have become more clear with the loss of their systems."

"It's gone, Wolf."

The team fell in silence, as explosions began to erupt from the hull of the ship. Ben must have been caught in the explosion when he hit the core of that thing. Wolf was the first to break it. "Executor, get back far from it as you can, when it goes off it's going to make one hell of a mess."

"Understood."

The fighters took the same advice and pulled away from the ship as far as they could, it wasn't long before the explosions tearing through its outer hull began to crack the massive ship in two. With a bright flash and several beams of light penetrating its exterior, the ship was enveloped in a brilliant explosion that lit up the entire planet below, and temporarily illuminating a full moon.

When Wolf's canopy tint faded back into visible range again, all that was left of the ship were huge chunks of debris. The Executor pushed through it, it's shields throwing off any pieces that threatened to put holes in her hull. It was heading straight back for Lupinhold.

"We'll have a service for Ben tonight. In the meantime, I'm gonna secure our payment." His voice was a solemn rumble, not the usual cocky growl. It was one of the few times that Wolf actually expressed sorrow.

Dawn wanted to tell him right there she could see the pain that Wolf felt, and was expertly hiding; but she decided against it. He was probably one of the strongest pilots in that regard without being a mindless husk. What interested her the most, is that the feelings she felt from him were almost the exact same ones she had pulled from Fox McCloud, particularly the sorrow he felt when he believed Peppy was killed after the final battle with the Aparoids. How would Wolf feel if she mentioned how similar their minds worked, she wondered?

It would probably mark her death, though, so she decided against it.

**Skies of Zoness**

**10:15 AM, That Same Day**

It took a while relying only on the limited hyperspace engines he was able to install on the Assassin, but he finally reached Zoness after a solid twelve hours of flight, minus a pit stop he had to make at an old trade station about half way. The food was terrible, but thankfully no one recognized him, or asked him about his Arwing.

He decided to hide back on the research base where he had nearly died; the Cornerians would have left it for dead, and he would be able to hold off any Venomians that tried looking for him there with the base's ample defenses. He reasoned that an attack shouldn't be a problem, considering the Venomians were probably far too busy preparing for their jump of Macbeth.

The base was as vacant as he had left it, and he pulled his Arwing into a steady landing on the same pad he stopped on that day. Painful memories swarmed him, but he pushed them aside. He had accepted what he did, and was there in preparation for his atonement.

In the meantime, he had an email to send.

The consoles in the command deck of the huge building were still operating, as he had counted on. He blew some dust off of the old LCD touch screen, and got to work. He didn't type a typical message, no greeting or conclusion, it was a chemical formula. One that had been implanted into his memory; it was long and complicated, but would be no problem to decipher for the person he was sending it to.

He was sending it to Slippy, straight to the Great Fox. He didn't put where he was, or even who sent it; just the formula, and three words.

_It's the cure._

He hit send, and then left the console, stretching out. He hadn't eaten in almost eight hours, and even then the food was so terrible he wasn't even sure he digested it properly. He decided to check what kind of imperishable stuff was in the mess hall; military installations always had lots of preservative stuffed crap. Crap though it may be, eventually you develop a taste for it. The memories that were restored in him gave him that taste.

A lot of the time on the ride was spent rumaging through memories that had been restored. His time with the Scarlet Hand; apparently he had been the leader, and was a ruthless, emotionless executioner. He looked at deeds he committed and felt a great sense of relief that he could try again in life now without anyone knowing his crimes.

_**16 Years Ago**_

_**Orbital Research Center, Unknown Planet**_

_**Narrative Continued by Skye Greyson**_

_I wandered through the hallways of the expansive orbital facility with my five most efficient members of the Scarlet Hand in tow. We simply barged right in, pounding the stations shields with our fighters and disabling it's communications array, landing in it's hangar, and killing everyone in sight before proceeding further into the facility. We all carried heavy laser weaponry, automatic or spread blaster alike._

_It was a merciless butchery. We marched through the hallways as an incredibly destructive unit. Every scientist, guard, and soldier in our way was mercilessly cut down. If they survived, we shot them again. Blood and tears were all that was left in our wake._

_I distinctly remember, on the way to the primary research area, I found the most pathetic creature I had ever seen on my rampage; he was a young bear, couldn't have been older than twenty. He was blubbering like an idiot on the floor, blocking my way on his hands and knees without even realizing it. Time seemed to slow, and my ears lost focus on the blaring alarm over head as I watched him cower before me. My orders were to execute everyone on the station, to prevent the story of what happened on the station reaching the ears of the Cornerian military; I planned to do just that with the same efficiency that granted me command of the prestigious Scarlet Hand. Without hesitating, I pulled my blaster to the kids head, and fired. With a thud and a shower of blood, the corpse hit the deck. We continued deeper into the station._

_It wasn't long until our wanton slaughter brought us to the main room of the research center, computers and test tubes lined up between stacks of paper and holograms. My team searched relentlessly for their goal, a very particular research project._

_After long minutes of searching, we finally found what we were looking for. Substance Delta Beta Three, aptly nicknamed the Draught of Endless Sleep. Alongside the files referencing it's creation and purpose, I found the synthesis procedures and chemical formula for a second chemical, similarly well named "The Cure." We took samples, and research data, and left behind a few presents in the form of heavy explosives in the research base's power core; nothing was left behind but dust when we left._

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Present Day**

**Great Fox Science Lab**

**Narrative Continued by Author**

While Cornerian Assault Carriers normally didn't come stock equip with a science lab, the abundance of barracks and other areas suited to support a full crew left a lot of extra room that the team would never need; and over the years many of the unused areas of the vessel were converted into more usable chambers; one of the most impressive and expensive being Slippy's science lab. The lab was custom tailored to Slippy's exact specifications when the ship was sold over to Star Fox for an extra fee which he took out of his own payment from the Anglar Blitz. The only facilities that surpassed it for his purposes were his own personal lab in his homely estate on Aquas, and of course the research center in the Orbital Gate facility where his father Beltino Toad resided.

Something was bugging him terribly, even more pressing than the imminent battle on their hands. Having studied the nature of his fallen wife's coma more, he eventually discovered a strange substance in her blood. He had no idea what it was, and there was no logs of it's existence in any Cornerian archives. He wished dearly that Skye were still there, he could have hacked the Venomian archives to check if it was some sort of new poison.

What he did know, is that it was causing her coma. What he didn't know, was how it got there, and how he was going to get rid of it. The night before he had translocated a blood sample to his father at the Corneria station to see if he could figure anything out that Slippy missed; and this morning he sat alone in the lab awaiting a response.

Suddenly he was awoken with a start, the door to the lab hissing open accompanied by a loud snap; he didn't even realize he drifted off, and surprise knocked him off of the stool he was precariously dozed off on. He hit the floor with a loud thud, quickly followed by a groan. He could hear a pair of feet shuffling towards him, and his blurry vision made out a slender pink form leaning over him. Katt's voice snapped him out of his daze. "Slippy, are you okay? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to start you up like that, hun!"

He shook his head while she offered him her hand, taking it, she pulled him onto his feet. "It's okay, I'm surprised I dozed off." He wandered over to his laptop to check the messages, but found that it turned off, having long passed it's time to go into inactivity shutdown. "Do you know what time it is, Katt?"

She checked her wrist PDA. "It's about quarter past twelve, sugar. Have you been up all night again? I came up to find you because we're about to have lunch."

He wiped sleep out of his eyes while his computer started up. "It looks like I fell asleep here, I guess. I'm waiting for an email back from my dad."

"It's always a good idea to keep in touch with the family…" she sighed.

"Actually it wasn't just to say hello, I found out that there's something in Amanda's blood that's keeping her in this coma, I sent a sample to my dad to see if he knew anything about it."

"Oh wow, really? You think someone poisoned her?"

"It would be the worst case scenario, but at least I'd be making progress on it."

"Hey Slippy, tell you what; Peppy's expecting that big attack to jump in today, you should probably get some sleep. How about I wake you up if you get an email back, okay?"

The offer was deemed unnecessary with a beep as a window popped up onto the laptops screen. _"New Mail: Subject, blank"_

"Looks like that won't be necessary, Katt, I just got it."

He opened the email and was surprised by what he saw. The email wasn't from his father at all, the sender address wasn't shown. All that the message said was, "It's the cure." His hopes arose, as he opened the email's attachment. Another window opened on his screen, and a green wire-frame sketch of a chemical structure appeared on his screen. He marveled at it. "Katt, this must be it! This must be the cure!" Excited, he jumped off of his stool and got right over to his chemical cupboard to get ready to synthesize some of his own. His brain pumped over time figuring out how exactly he was going to go about doing it. He was mumbling a storm of extremely long words that she couldn't even come close to understanding.

Katt had no idea how she could help, so she decided to give the determined toad some space. "Well good luck with it, Slippy, I don't think I'll be much help so I'll go tell the rest of the gang the good news."

She waited for a reply from Slippy, but his eyes were lit up like Christmas tree ornaments, and she decided to leave him alone, the door of the lab snapping shut behind her as she made her way down to the "dojo", as they liked to call it. The Dojo was originally just the work out room, and was large enough to accommodate a crew of one thousand. When less than ten are on board at one time, that left a lot of extra equipment and space they didn't need, so Fox had a boxing ring and all kinds of different punching bags and other hand-to-hand training tools. When Katt last asked ROB, he told her that Fox Mina and Krystal were all down training there. Lunch was nearly ready, so she was heading down to go tell them.

She saw exactly what she expected when she got there. Fox and Krystal were at practice with their staves again, but instead of sulking alone beating the stuffing out of a punching bag, Mina was actually smiling for the first time in days, watching the two lovebird vulpine's duke it out. Katt shuffled in beside Mina, offering a smile in greeting, and Mina returned it in kind.

Fox was exhausted again as he blocked one assault from Krystal after another. Every time he recovered she came again, raining down furious blows that sent sparks flying from the stave shafts, showering the two combatants. Fox locked her in a parry and looked at her, stunned. "Krystal, you're gonna beat me senseless with that thing if I miss a block!"

"Then don't miss!" She said with a giggle, jumping back and breaking off. Without another choice, he recuperated his stance again and prepared for her next assault.

Katt interrupted them before it came, though. "Can I bug you two lovebirds for a sec?"

Krystal stopped in mid swing and shortened her staff casually, causing Fox to sigh in relief and shorten his own. "What's up, Katt?"

"I have good news, and better news. The good news is that lunch is ready, and Falco managed not to ruin it this time." A collective sigh of relief escaped all three of the other pilots nearly in unison.

"And the better news?" Fox asked, approaching the edge of the ring and leaning against the railing.

"Slippy apparently figured out that some kind of poison was keeping Amanda in her coma, while it sounds like bad news at first, he just got an email that apparently has the recipe for the cure. No idea where it came from, though."

Fox looked confused. "Wait a minute, poison? I thought it had to have been an explosive impact or something, considering where I found her."

Krystal barred her teeth in anger. "Another of Dash's cruel tricks…"

Mina suddenly seemed distant again, she had an idea of where that email came from. If the poison came from one of Dash's men, and Skye had betrayed them only to suddenly supply them with life saving intel, who's to say he wouldn't help them a second time?

She must have spent longer thinking about it than she thought, because when she retook note of her surroundings Katt was already gone, Fox and Krystal heading towards the door. Krystal looked back to her and beckoned Mina to the doors. "Mina, let's go get lunch shall we?"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

It was burgers on the menu again in the Great Fox Galley. The entire team, excluding Katt and Falco, was nervous about how they turned out this time around. The birds previous attempt at cooking led to disaster, to the point where it was agreed as a general consensus to get rid of the entire batch and let Krystal make something.

To their surprise, they were actually pretty good. Falco was eyeing the team nervously, just waiting for someone to come out and say it was utter shit, but they kept their mouths shut. He decided to break the silence anyway. "Hey, where's Slippy?" They had been eating for ten minutes, and it was the first anyone mentioned about him.

"Apparently a random email he got sent told him what he needed to know about how to bring Amanda back to the land of the living, he's probably working on that now." Fox explained.

He looked more surprised than any of the other team members were when the news was broken out. "Wait, what? I thought it was just impact trauma."

"That's the weird thing, apparently it was some kind of poison, and someone sent him the cure. Mina thinks it was Skye but…"

He noticed Mina had very little animation left to her movement, she was just holding her burger in her right paw and looking down at it, deep in thought. "I have my doubts…" He finished.

"Well, I'll make sure to leave him some leftovers I guess, the poor guy missed breakfast too, probably gonna be hungry as hell when he's finished." the bird retorted.

Krystal entered the conversation, changing the topic. "What makes me wonder, is when this huge attack is going to come. The entire force is on edge for it."

Falco looked smug with himself. "Well, I hope it's soon, I'm aching for a good fight right now."

Fox wasn't convinced this was going to be just another mission. "Don't get too worked up Falco, they tried their hardest to get us out of the way for this one, they're probably gonna throw everything they have at us."

Krystal looked at Falco, concerned. "We're also down to five pilots; Slippy is going to be inseparable from his lab at least for all of today…"

Fox looked down to his plate. "I wonder what Skye's gonna do."

Falco shrugged. "Safe to say he's on our side though, considering all that's happened since Zoness. Frankly I like having the outside help, he's a pretty resourceful guy."

"The question is…" Krystal added, "If and when we encounter him, what should we do?"

They were all looking at Fox, including Mina. He took the time to think hard about it. "We give him a chance to answer for what he's done, and go from there."

Mina was the only one who broke gaze with Fox right then. Krystal noticed as well, and tried to probe what she was thinking; she could see Skye, but little else. She was guarding herself well. All five of them could only hope they could make the right decision when the time came to act.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Zoness Research Base**

**12:13 PM**

Skye worked quickly and alone. While he was disgusted by most of the memories that had returned that fateful day, there were some that would prove more useful than he originally surmised.

In his time on Venom before he was enlisted in the Scarlet Hand, it turned out he had carried out years of research regarding aerospace technology, much of which was coming back to him now. A goal he had for the Assassin was to enhance it's covert insertion capabilities with more advanced stealth technology, and it turned out ironically he had already done this research nearly seventeen years ago. The schematics were right in his brain, he knew it backwards and frontwards, and he had all the materials handy after taking a look over the old base's storage bays. As soon as he had sent the email to Slippy, he was already at work.

He was going to add a fully functional cloaking device to his Arwing.

The work was quick, and his hands knew the procedure as if he had done it before. Some components he had to search the entire complex to find, but he didn't have to improvise. The only thing that made him grumble was the fact he had to fill up the cargo bay of his Arwing with the new device; but it was a minor inconvenience as compared to the tactical advantage it would give him.

For tonight, was the night of reckoning; not only for himself, but for the lives of thousands of soldiers that would clash in orbit of Macbeth. Tonight he would be judged.

**((Shortest chapter yet, I know, but there was only so much I could do without infringing upon the insanity that will be chapter 14. I'm going to go straight into it instead of updating Indignant Past first, so get ready for some serious business. R&R, and I'll see you all soon!))**


	15. Chapter 14: The Battle of Macbeth

**Chapter 14: The Battle of Macbeth**

**August 12th, 6:41 PM**

**Zoness Research Base, VIP Landing Pad**

It had taken him hours, but they went by quickly as he worked. The snow leopard stood beholding the upgraded Assassin II Arwing, now fitted with the first working one man fighter cloaking device in history, and just in time for the fireworks to start. The Venomian forces were scheduled to hit Macbeth at around 7:30 PM, leaving Skye plenty of time to put the recently constructed Zoness Warp Gate to some use.

The gate was commissioned only two months ago, and was meant to connect the Cornerian and Venomian halves of the Lylat system. Fortunately when the war started, the gate was damaged during its furious defense, and it couldn't be used by the Venomians to win the war handily.

Now that the planet was under Cornerian control again, the gate's repairs were finished, and came online only two days previous; and would serve as the means for Skye to get to the battle zone in time to help.

He jumped in the cockpit and warmed up its engines running through the pre-flight checklist, as was instinct by now. The engines whined as the repulsor-lifts picked the ship off from the landing pad into the air. Pressing the throttle to half, the rear thrust engine kicked in with a bright flash, blasting him into the polluted Zonesian sky, which was still barely lit by the setting sun. As the Assassin began to reach its peak speed, he started to catch up with the sun, his view becoming brighter as the fighter breached the atmosphere. As quickly as he launched, he was in space again. He checked the application he installed on his dash board for the cloaking device; and it read 100% functional and ready.

The Zoness orbital gate worked as simply as transmitting the coordinates of where you needed to go to the gate's destination receiver, and if the location was authorized, it would open, allowing you to proceed. He seriously doubted that the to-be warzone was a permitted warp zone, so he got ready to put his hacking skills to work. The automated systems of the gate would be no match for his expertise.

So he tried normally first. He opened the communications application on his dashboard, and it automatically scanned for available frequencies. Amongst all of the individual ship broadcast frequencies he finally found one named Gate_Control_1, he selected it, and a text message appeared on his screen. _"Input destination coordinates for approval."_

Rather than try to remember the current coordinates of Macbeth, he knew that most modern navigational systems were programmed with commonly used coordinates with nicknames. He typed in "Waypoint: "Macbeth"".

After a few seconds, another text message appeared on his screen. "_Destination denied, please enter another destination."_

Rather than comply with it's request, he got to work. He pressed a button he had programmed into his communications application; _Crack_. It would covertly download the secure login form of the gate, and experiment with it in seclusion until it found the administrator login details. After twenty seconds flat, the words _Admin1 _and _elizaellingwood _where displayed on his screen. He typed a command to send to the gate control frequency. _Admin Login: ID:Admin1 Password:elizaellingwood_.

A long block of text was sent to him, a command directory. A quick read through them all revealed the one he was looking for. He typed in _Forceset_destination: Waypoint:"Macbeth". _A reply was given to him instantly. _Destination set. _With a few more keytaps, he sent it the message _execute_.

As soon as he typed this he turned his Arwing towards the gate, and started up his new cloaking device. With a blur, he could no longer see the exterior of his ship, just a nice view out of the canopy. He watched as the gate began to react to his command, three ring segments expanding away from each other that would define the frame of the warp portal.

With a bright flash of light as he approached, suddenly a bright green liquid-like surface was lighting up the night, the portal was open. A collection of fighters began to circle the gate, looking for whoever had hacked it to send the user to an unauthorized militarized location; but they would find no one as long as Skye was in his brand new cloak.

He slipped unnoticed into the warp gate, and felt a shudder as his ship was thrown to ludicrous speeds towards his destination. All he had to do now was wait to arrive; the trip would take only a half an hour as apposed to 12 having gone through the gate.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Meanwhile…**

**Great Fox II Bridge**

Fox sat alone in silence looking at the view out of the bridge viewport, waiting with paranoia for the doomsday attack that had been predicted. It was almost 7 PM, and the Macbeth Planetary Defense Network was scheduled to complete repairs tonight at midnight. Although the military tried to control the media as best they could to make people think it was going to take until as long as next week, Fox knew that the Venomians probably had people on the inside who knew the truth. The attack was going to come tonight sooner or later.

The chilling scene was broken by a hiss in the bridge doorway, he hurt his neck turning quickly to see who it was. Krystal smiled at him, not breaking stride, and sitting down in the chair beside him. He relaxed, returning his attention to the view of the green planet below, letting out a long exasperated sigh. "Could be any minute now."

She set her gaze on the planet below as well. "I wonder how many ships they have ready?"

"If they went through all this trouble to prepare, it's probably gonna be a lot of them. In the end it doesn't really matter, they have three Cornerian battle groups and our full squadron to deal with."

"What of the super ship?"

"We've handled Venomians biggest and baddest toys before; it'll just be another slightly longer struggle than usual. I promise."

"I hope you're right." She feel the confidence in his mind, and it made her smile in comfort. He was absolutely positive they were all going to make it out of this struggle alive, and that was good enough for her. She walked over to the sensor station to keep an eye on the progress of the constant scan. Ship shaped green blobs filled the space around them. Thanks to ROB being around she didn't have to watch it, but it made her nervous waiting, and she had been spending a lot of time at that station to calm her nerves.

The sensors weren't what gave away their arrival though. Despite the fact he was expecting the Venomians, the first few jumping into Macbeth orbit still gave him a jump. His jaw dropped as he watched out the viewport; dozens of ships all snapped into vision with the bright flashes of coming out of hyperspace. ROB had taken the liberty of sounding the ships alarm. " ENEMY FORCE IS PRESENT. ALL HANDS TO COMBAT READINESS."

Fox stood up and watched the force continue to arrive, he lost count at 30 ships, they all came too fast. There were already more than Peppy's force. That number must have at least doubled again before the madness stopped.

Then, the behemoth ship that they were told about made it's entrance. The immense structure dwarfed everything else in his view, and was at least 50 times the size of the Great Fox. "WARNING; TOP PRIORITY THREAT APPEARING ON SENSORS, JUGGERNAUT SIZE VESSEL; CURRENT FORCE INSUFFICIENT TO REPEL."

He hated to admit it, but his robotic comrade was right. They had twice as many ships before you counted the big bastard. He turned, nodding to Krystal, and they ran in the direction of the hangar. "Okay, I changed my mind, this is ridiculous!"

"That thing has to have a weak point Fox, if we take it down the rest might get scared and run off."

"There's gotta be at least 60 ships out there! The entire Cornerian armada doesn't even stand a chance against those numbers. Even if we're here, we only have so many bombs!" He pulled the ear piece that had replaced his headset and just put the microphone to his muzzle rather than struggle with it before the two vulpine got to the elevator. "All pilots, get to your fighters and prep for combat! There's a heck of a mess out there, we gotta help the Cornerians as much as we can!"

They got to the lift, and Krystal rushed to the controls and started it on it's decent to the hangar. The two finished getting their ear pieces in place as it stopped to allow the other pilots in, Fox noticed Slippy wasn't among them. "Isn't Slippy coming too?"

"We can't pry him off Amanda, we're gonna have to do without." Katt said, stepping in with Falco and Mina.

He growled. "I almost wish the cure didn't come today, he's got the best smart bomb compliment of all of us."

Krystal looked angry with him. "Don't be so selfish, Fox! We can handle this without him, think of what he's going through!"

His ears folded down in shame as the elevator hit the flight deck level. "Sorry… I didn't think about it that way…" he mumbled. The doors sliding open refueled his concentration. "Get ready for immediate launch, let's go, team!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Peppy watched in humbled reverence as his opposition came to him. His sensor officer told him 64 ships ranging from frigate to dreadnaught size, and a 65th which he didn't need his men to identify. The Juggernaut sized vessel that they had waited for in anticipation; with a hint of fear mixed in.

He had 31 ships under his command including the Patriot, plus the Great Fox with it's 5 active Arwing pilots. He didn't like the odds, but fate never let the odds decide the course of the future. It was a lesson he had learned out of his many years of experience in combat.

Drake Tuttle was working the tactical station. "Orders, General?"

Peppy snapped his mind back into action. "We can't let them get into position to bear their entire fleets guns at any one time. Move all of our ships to the port side of their formation an assault line formation, circle their entire group at full throttle. We need to preserve our shields and spread the damage through all of our ships."

"And if the Juggernaut gets an angle on us?"

"Then we tighten up our formation and maneuver away from it. We can't deal with that thing until we have the peons out of our way. Let's hope Star Fox has a plan for it."

He didn't know why he said it, he knew that Fox never made plans on how to defeat such an immense opponent; he did exactly as the old hare had taught him. He flew with his instincts, and kept his mind in the moment, not on a plan that could crumble with the slightest change of situation. Tuttle turned back to his console. "Aye sir, conveying orders to the fleet."

He watched the hornets nest of Venomian ships grow larger as they drew closer in silence. He felt as though he sat in his own grave, he knew it was more than likely one of those dozens of ships he saw could probably be his dying hand. His confidence only improved a little as the smaller and faster ships of his fleet began to pass the Patriot. "Sensors, what kind of ship classes are we dealing with?"15 5 8 4 15 5 12

"They're throwing everything at us sir, old tech and new. 15 Old Harlock class missile frigates, 5 Grazan class carriers, 8 Zeram class cruisers, Four Saruzin class dreadnaughts, 15 Braizen class battleships, 5 Warpath class dreadnaughts, and 12 Halciar class escort frigates."

The Harlocks and Zerams were famous for their use in the Venom air defense zone, especially Area 6. Harlocks were irregular bars with stubby wing sections at the back that sported impressive capacities for missile bays. While they were out-dated, many of them were easily brought up to standard simply by upgrading the missile launch systems and upgrading the shields. Zarems were the strange triangular prism shaped ships with the crown like bridge sections, and while they were very heavily armed, had notably weak shielding around its bridge, which had proved to be a valuable weak point that was exploited during Star Fox's raid on Venom. He wondered if that was still applicable.

Grazan and Saruzin class ships debuted in the battle of Sector Y and also were old tech. The Grazan was known for its double barreled shotgun design, and carried a very impressive array of fighters and armor. Fortunately its usefulness stopped there, and usually they were destroyed quickly after its fighters were dealt with. Its outdated armor wouldn't have been worth replacing, so Peppy felt safe to assume they would be easy pickings. The Saruzin class was another story all together, and was one of the doomsday ships of the Lylat War. While it was outdated by now, it was so powerful back then that it would still pose a threat today, especially with a proper weapon's refit. It was even larger than the Patriot, and would probably try to outdo Corneria's heavier ships just by having more armor and weapons.

Braizen class battleships were the brand new kind of rectangular vessels that had been spotted already multiple times during this war. They were becoming a common sight in the Venomian fleet, and he knew how to beat them. The question Peppy had was; where was Dash getting all of these ships so quickly?

The Warpath classes worried him, two of them had nearly trashed the experienced general over Fichina only a few weeks previous. They were big, state of the art, and had a lot of top level weaponry; they were packing 4 beam cannons each, with at least 2 dozen other guns including point defense flak guns and ship-to-ship turbo laser batteries. The Halciar classes on the other hand, were just bullet fodder. They would be accompanying their larger ships for extra fire support, but didn't pose a threat to ships as large as the Patriot; in larger numbers they could be dangerous, however. 15 of these ships was nothing to laugh at. They were small disc shaped ships with rectangular sections facing backwards on the top and bottom of it which served as the thruster mounts. They only had a single beam cannon, 4 turbo laser batteries, and 2 flak cannons.

The Venomians were single minded in their purpose, nearly all of their ships had already turned to face him and his comrades. "Open fire as soon as the first ships come in range."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The old grey furred horse Admiral Silversmith observed his objective with glee as his mobile battle station and its 64 ship escort moved to mow down the bulk of the Cornerian fleet in one fell sweep. His men outnumbered Corneria 2 to one; it didn't even matter that Star Fox and the Patriot were there, he would crush them all. This was their final day of reckoning.

He was almost giddy, turning to his sensors officer. "Confirm there are no other sources of reinforcements on the way."

"Nothing sir, there is no indication of any warp traffic now that we've arrived. It's us and them."

"Excellent, Victoria, how long until we are in weapons range?"

The pink holographic tiger appeared standing to his side, looking out the bridge viewport. "Two minutes until beam cannons in range, Two and a half for point blank weaponry."

"Good… The final defeat of Corneria is at hand."

She tried to fake enthusiasm as best she could. "Yes. We will be victorious."

In truth, she was waiting for something completely different. She was waiting for her friend Skye to give her the signal she was waiting for, so she could end the lives of her suppressors and secure victory for Corneria with a whim. Thanks to her form, she found the charade easy to play, and no one on the ship suspected her scheme.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The five Arwings flew ahead of the Great Fox II, leading her into battle with the cloud of enemy ships. Fox, Falco, Katt, Mina and Krystal were in a Delta formation, with Krystal and Katt both in the rear of the formation, separated vertically.

"That ship has interior fighter corridors just like that huge carrier we dealt with near Kew." Fox explained, "We're gonna blast right through the center of their fleet. Two of us are going to go straight inside the Juggernaut and rip her apart from the inside, the other three are going to continue the pass with the Great Fox to get her safely out of the fur ball, and hook up with the rest of the fleet."

Two questions…" Falco interrupted. "Who's going with you inside of that thing, and how are only two of you going to manage to get out of the center of the largest fleet we've ever faced once you've stirred up the biggest shit storm in history?"

"I imagine that thing's gonna make a pretty big explosion when she goes off, should be a good enough distraction. Krystal is coming with me, in that tight quarters speech coordination won't be quick enough to stay alive, I need someone who can literally read my mind."

Krystal pulled up beside him, the two leading the formation. "I'm with you, Fox."

"Times like this make me wish I had more than one smart bomb." Mina sighed.

Katt shrugged in her cockpit. "Look on the bright side hun, you outrun any of us and can pretty much last forever with your recharging shields."

"That's assuming I don't get vapourized in one shot!"

"Cut the chatter you two," said Fox, "we're getting close. Let's blow a hole for the Great Fox to get through."

They approached the right side of the huge enemy formation quickly; only three of their ships broke off to face them head to head; two missile frigates and one of the huge Saruzin class dreadnaughts. "We need to clear the missile frigates first; our weapons can't scratch the big one anyway. ROB, target the larger ship and crack it in half!"

"AFFIRMATIVE, LOCKING DISRUPTOR CANNONS ON TARGET."

The Arwings broke off out of the assault carriers way as its huge cannons fired the first shots of the battle at the huge weapons platform. Fox and Krystal broke off left towards one missile carrier, the other three broke off right. The two lances of yellow death from the Great Fox II slammed into the dreadnaught hard, it's shields flickering brightly under the impact. It's beam cannons began to charge, targeting the teams home ship.

They got their missiles off too soon, though. 4 waves of 4 long cylindrical ion missiles jumped out of the missile frigates wings, spreading out as they locked into the Arwings. "Break off and evade, we're being marked by EMP missiles!"

Fox and Krystal broke in separate directions, 4 missiles following each of them. Krystal looked into his mind and saw his plan, they arced around slowly to let the missiles keep pace, and headed straight towards each other. "As soon as we're parallel, boost and make a hard turn, only two of the missiles need to collide to destroy them all."

Krystal nodded, arcing towards her love. He could only be distinguished from the missiles chasing him by the colour of the thrusters on the back of them, the Arwing's was blue, and the missiles were all a blazing orange.

Fox swore he could see Krystal in her cockpit they came so close to each other, their cockpits almost scraping as they flew past. As ordered Krystal slammed on her boost towards one of the small parts of space the missiles didn't occupy, Fox did the same; a brilliant blue flash marked the impact of the missiles into each other, the cloud engulfing the advancing missile frigate. The ship came out the other side dark, the EMP blast having ruined its electrical systems, most likely including their life support and gravity.

Falco, Mina and Katt were having a similar problem, although all of the missiles locked onto Mina, her rushing into the battle too quickly. They chased her Interceptor relentlessly, but she was leading them on a wild goose chase. There was no chance they could keep up to her. "I'm going to try to run these into the dreadnaught!"

She put her money where her mouth was. The Saruzin was designed perfectly for her maneuver, the bridge being on a platform that was held up on both sides above the deck; this made a tight hole under it, that she would be able to fly through… She couldn't say the same for the missiles, though. She sluggishly allowed them to loop behind her so she could set up her chase. Flak cannons and laser cannons came to life, trying to turn her into dust rather than complete her maneuver.

They failed.

With a barrel roll and a battle cry, she flew right under the bridge. The first missile slammed into the bridge, the EMP wave taking the rest of them with it. That ship also began to go dark. It's beam cannons going dormant again without ever having been fired at the Great Fox.

The next barrage from the Great Fox's disruptors didn't meet shields, they met the armor of the deck right near the bridge, where the warp core of the ship was likely located. With an explosion, the ship began to buckle; the Arwings and the Great Fox blasted through the rubble to their next challenge as the Saruzin detonated, bringing its last remaining missile frigate escort down with it.

Fox chuckled at their first kills of the night. "Three down, Sixty one to go."

"That number's gonna start dropping fast once Peppy gets into the fray." Falco said.

"UPDATE: THE CORNERIAN FIRST AND SECOND FLEETS HAVE FALLEN IN RANGE OF THE ENEMY AND THEIR BATTLE HAS BEGUN. THE JUGGERNAUT IS IN WEAPONS RANGE OF THE PATRIOT. I SUGGEST IMMEDIATE INTERVENTION TO PREVENT ITS DESTRUCTION."

"We're on our way, ROB, don't you worry." A Zeram class cruiser and another missile frigate began to turn to face their aggressors as they relentlessly approached the juggernaut, but they were too slow. The Great Fox pummeled the missile frigate with it's immense disruptors, cracking the small ship in half. The Arwings took a run at the Zeram, pummeling the bridge with their lasers. As Fox thought, the same weakness they always had during the battle of Area 6 was still not fixed, and the ship began to drift as it's triangular bridge detonated. They plowed towards the massive ship at the center of the fleet; more ships began to face them, desperate to protect their ace in the hole from the Cornerian heroes.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Sir, our starboard shields wont stand much more of this punishment!" Tuttle yelled over to his commanding officer.

"Put us on an axial spin and bring all port guns to bear as soon as they're within firing arc, we can't give up yet! Keep pounding the top spires shields!" Peppy roared, leaning forward in his captains chair as the ship shuddered horribly. Red alarm lights flashed in every corner of the bridge, the viewport showing his match; the immense juggernaut, the Indignation.

"We can't move quick enough, they're gonna get the last shot in!"

Peppy let his ears back. "So this is it then."

Just when he thought it was over, he watched as one of the smaller escort frigates under his command flew into his view of the juggernaut. Thick beam cannons slammed into the small ship, the explosion of the frigate breaking apart sending the old rabbit into a state of sorrow. He didn't have time to mourn their sacrifice however; they would be remembered forever for their bravery. He wouldn't let their sacrifice in the line of duty be in vain. "God have mercy on those brave souls… Are we in position?"

"Yes sir, we should be able to last a few more rounds now."

"All auxiliary power to weapons, bring that thing down!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

His Arwing snapped into real space unnoticed and completely silent in the cold of space, his cloaking generator keeping the Assassin an unknown factor in the Battle of Macbeth.

The snow leopard Skye observed the chaos in silence as he maneuvered into the fray, heading towards his objective: The Indignation. He still had 10 minutes left on his cloaking device before it's battery would have to recharge; and that could take hours. It was all he needed. All he needed to do was get close enough to send a signal to Victoria, and the battle would be swung in the Cornerians favour.

He came within only 3 kilometers of the Great Fox II on his pursuit, and watched it blast through the remains of a Grazan class carrier, it's double-barreled shotgun design reduced to scrap under the wrath of the Star Fox team. They had almost beaten him to his target.

No ships, fighters or guns turned to face him as he approached the huge disc-shaped ship. It's towering spire sending a chill down his spine with its breathtaking complement of weaponry; busy with destroying the fleet of Cornerian ships that bravely stood in its path. Once he finally worked up his nerves, he sent a hail to the huge ship.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The Indignation's communications officer turned to face his admiral with a puzzled look on his face. "Sir, we're receiving a hail."

"Peppy calling to surrender?"

"Unknown source, sir. I have no idea where it's coming from, I'm working on triangulating the origin now. Should I patch it through?"

"Fine, audio only."

The bridge was silent in nervous expectation, but it was broken by a deep baritone, a hoarse voice that sounded like it came from hell itself. "Crew of the Indignation, your crimes against peace are unforgivable, and have invoked the full wrath of the last remaining elite of the Scarlet Hand. Your deaths will be slow, and they will be painful. A long, agonizing burn in the deepest pits of hell awaits you and your scum subordinates, Admiral. Bon voyage."

"Who the hell…? Greyson, if that's you I swear to god…."

"The channel is closed, sir!"

The bridge was in silence. "Forget it! Target that..." He found himself struggling for breath. "Target the Patriot!"

"Sir, I've been locked out! I can't do anything!"

Silversmith was beginning to get enraged, his breathing getting heavier without realizing its true cause. "What the hell is going on here?!"

That was when gravity gave out. He began to float from his chair, and realized he could no longer breathe properly. He gasped for air, no longer trying to speak. He heard gurgles and deep gulps for air from his bridge crew. The pink hologram he knew as Victoria Trace walked towards him as though she had gravity of her own.

"You have no idea how satisfying this is, Aiken. Everything I did for Venom, and I was repaid with the loss of my physical body, and the permanent enslavement to the hardwires of this ship…"

Silversmith could only stare at her in shock as he drifted about the bridge. "I could have self destructed the ship, would have been much quicker and easier… I decided though, why not get the pleasure of watching my revenge being so excruciatingly extracted? How does it feel to be killed in such a humiliating manner, Admiral…?"

Normally she felt so kind hearted inside, but the darkest reaches of her heart made themselves known that night. Her deepest desires of revenge were becoming a reality; and despite the brutality, she was enjoying every second of it. She watched the Admiral until his face turned blue until he finally stopped struggling, the bridge fell completely silent.

She snapped into action, interacting with the ships systems, leaving the life support off until she was sure the entire crew was dead. She received another hail, presumably from Skye.

"Good job, Victoria, You don't know how many lives you saved today, as ironic as that might sound."

"I'm just glad I got my swing at the people who did this to me. What do we do now?"

"We can't contact the Cornerians just yet, but we need to show good faith. Target the Venomian ships surrounding you and show them no quarter; once this mess is cleaned up they'll probably try to board the Indignation, so make sure life support is back up before they do."

"You got it." She paused, looking to the floor of the bridge. "Wait… Skye…?"

A pause. "Yeah?"

"You're gonna keep your promise right? I'm going to get my body back?"

"Of course, I am a man of my word."

She was relieved to know that she could trust the double agent, even though in theory he could be lying, she tried not to entertain the notion. She trusted him with what was left with her life; not because he was the person she knew best, because he wasn't. It was simply that he was the last one left that could help her; he was her last hope.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Sir, the Indignation stopped firing at us! It's targeting the surrounding hostiles!"

Peppy blinked at his first officer a couple of times. "I must be dreaming, you wanna confirm that Commander?"

He double checked his console. "I'm sure! Look at the visual!"

The screen showed the huge ship turning around and it's weapons lighting up the escort ships around it, despite it only being the beginning of this strange action, it had already eradicated two ships. "Well, I'll be damned. Tell the fleet to mark the Indignation as a friendly."

"Yes sir!"

"Target the closest battleship and open fire, what's the repair crew's progress on the starboard shield generator?"

His engineering officer was standing behind him at his own console, tapping through commands rapidly. "It's almost completely fried, sir, but our other generators are still at above 80% efficiency."

"Hard maneuver to starboard, don't let any of their ships see our weak side!"

"Understood, sir!"

He was distracted by the temporary brilliance of the Indignation wiping out the ships in it's immediate vicinity by the elongated Grazan class carrier that rushed at him at top speed. His own squadrons had devastated it's fighters, and it's last option was to act as a martyr and collide with his ship. "All guns, stop that carrier!"

"Firing!"

Two bright beams of light slammed the carriers underside, the momentum sending it into a vertical spin, it was still going to hit. "Emergency maneuver! Get us out of the way, and keep firing on that ship!"

"Thrusters to full!"

The Patriot's thrusters burst to life as it tried to push the huge ship out of the way of the immense brick-like debris that was going to collide with them. The constant punishment of the Patriot's point blank weapons finally managed to break it in half before impact, the carriers two pieces harmlessly passing the dreadnaught by. "Take us close to the Indignation and use her as cover for our port side! Instruct the rest of the fleet to regroup and sweep its immediate vicinity!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

What Fox saw made no sense to him, suddenly the huge ship they were mentally preparing to face turned against it's former allies, turning them to scrap. The score was now 35 Venomian ships left as compared to the Cornerians 19. Many Cornerians were lost, but with this strange activity from the immense ship, hope was reborn.

"Okay, scratch that last idea. Great Fox, form up with the juggernaut instead. We need to stick close to it until we figure out why it's doing this… The rest of you, let's cut down on the bombers."

With the buzz of capital ship activity and the seemingly endless rain of laser fire between them, it was easy to miss the squadrons of bombers that made their way from the various types of carrier to the Cornerian fleet. While the bird-like Cornerian fighters did their best to stave them off, some frigates and cruisers had already fallen prey to the heavy one-man fighters.

Falco was quick to exercise the beastly capabilities of the Multi-lock on system of the Sky Claw. Coming out of a barrel roll, he held down the lock on trigger and jinked his fighter around to get the crosshair on as many victims as he could; his HUD quickly lit up like a Christmas tree with confirmed locks.

His canopy went dark when he released the trigger from all of the power required to back such a barrage, but quickly recovered. A spread of green laser projectiles slammed into targets all around him, lighting up the space around him. He maneuvered out of the way of an incoming turbo laser flash as his eyes lit up like a child's in a candy store. "I really wish they hadn't removed the kill counter on the Arwing II's."

Katt giggled. "I'm sure you can live without knowing how many Venomians you killed, Falco."

"Not when we're being paid by the hit!"

"Stay focused, you two!" Fox said, pointing his nose at the nearest battleship. Unfortunately for its crew, it was concentrating too hard on hitting the rebellious mother ship rather than the imminent doom that was loading into Fox's smart bomb launcher. With a barrel roll, he slammed through the ships shield barrier and pulled up so he was flying down its length, and quickly snapped off the bomb towards the side of the ship.

He pulled up quickly as it impacted, barrel rolling away a heavy laser round that tracked him after it was far too late. The bomb worked its magic, tearing its victim amidships. Just one more bites the dust.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Skye sighed with relief, landing his fighter in one of the Indignation's many fighter bays slowly, but not opening the canopy. "Victoria, can you reactivate life support?" He asked his comm board, while his cloaking device went dry and made him visible again on its own accord.

"The crew is completely neutralized; I'm bringing life support back online now. Give a couple minutes for the air to vent in properly before you come out."

"Understood."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Peppy finally was allowing his paranoia about the juggernaut turning back to attack him again aside; Venomian ships were beginning to break off, and the cover the mammoth vessel provided for his damaged starboard side was a huge relief.

The ship still shuddered under his boots with impacts once in a while, but there wasn't nearly as much left for opposition anymore. The tension on the bridge was slowly subsiding. Their current target was their last Saruzin class carrier, which was letting all of its guns loose into the Patriots port side.

"Status on their shields?"

"A few more hits on their bow section and they'll shatter."

"Port beam cannons lock on that ship and fire on my mark!"

The two beam cannons on the left surface of the ship began to light up, and the carrier took the hint. The lumbering warship veered as hard as it could to it's starboard side to avoid being slammed by the Patriots powerful weapons for the last time, but there was no chance.

"Mark!"

The two lances barely even met shield, as the beams triumphantly pierced the bridge section of the once-mighty carrier. Detonations began to appear all over the vessel, and space lit up for one of the last times that night when its warp core went critical.

"Status on the Indignation?"

"Its closest targets are fleeing, and it has not turned its guns against us."

"Target the closest fleeing ship and open fire, pursue them until they go to warp, instruct all ships to do the same!"

Tuttle, and the communications officer both yelled in unison. "Aye sir!" The ship shuddered under their feet again as the thrusters sent the ship sprawling towards one of the fleeing frigates. "Make a 15 degree turn to port and lock starboard beam cannons!"

The dreadnaught began to slow and lose chase to it's smaller prey as it turned, but it was still close enough to get the fatal blow. Two more lances fired out of the right surface of the ship this time, skewering the fleeing disc-like escort frigate like a kabob. The detonation came swiftly.

As suddenly as they came, ships on the edge of the fur ball began to snap back into hyperspace. All they were leaving behind was the debris of their lost comrades, but some ships fought to the death as the remaining Cornerian ships hunted them to their last breath.

Drake stood in his seat with a wide, ecstatic grin on his face. "Sir! They're running for it! All Venomian ships are in full retreat!"

The bridge erupted with cheers, all of its personnel leaping out of their seats with fists in the air. Peppy laid back into his seat, letting his head roll back as he stared at the ceiling. "Good job men, it's been a hell of a night. Alert the rest of the fleet and move back into Macbeth orbit."

"With pleasure, General!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"They're running for it!" Krystal nearly yelled. "We won!"

Falco did a roll through the debris of a destroyed cruiser just for the sake of augmenting the victory for a bit of fun, cheering away as he did so. Katt playfully tailed him through his ballistic course. "That could have ended a lot worse!"

Amongst the debris of lost ships, the last survivors of the Venomian fleet began to turn tail and run. With the last shots of the battle

Once the Venomians were cleared out, Fox was able to turn his attention to the mystery that had spared all of their lives. "We need to figure out what the deal with the mother ship is…" He pointed his Arwing towards the huge ship, looking for an opening.

Krystal boosted towards it and ran her Arwing down the length of the spire, scanning with her telepathy. "I can't sense anything, Fox. Something's wrong."

"Nothing at all…?" Mina asked, taking position behind Fox. "That can't be right, if there was no one at all aboard it wouldn't have been able to help us."

Falco fell into formation with them. "Wait a minute here, you're saying the Venomians ace in the hole is now suddenly a ghost ship. How the heck does something like that happen?"

"Should we go aboard?" Katt said.

"I ain't afraid of ghosts," Fox said, determined. "Especially when they kill Venomians for us." A few button presses on his dash brought up the image of Peppy on the console. "Peppy, do you want us to board that thing and check out what happened?"

"Yes, Fox. Just incase, I'm going to send Blackhook squadron in with you. We can never be too careful."

"Understood." His radar picked up a green blip parting with the patriot and setting course for the immense vessel. The closer they got to it, the more Fox was awe inspired by its size. He made his way for the most convenient hole into the ships innards, and the Arwings met an expansive fighter bay. It was completely bare of its former occupants, destroyed or having fled in the recent conflict. The dropship holding the members of Blackhook squadron landed close behind them.

Krystal was the first out of her cockpit, and she whipped out her staff at what she saw, with her jaw gaping wide open. There were corpses, a lot of them. Everyone in the chamber was dead. She rushed to one of them as the others got out of their own cockpits, and tried to figure out the cause of death.

The Blackhook elites rapidly filed out of their dropship; the green lion Sabre, the red fox Jack, Ian the hawk, Miyu and Fay. As Fox made the jump from his cockpit he walked over to Sabre, with a hand outstretched.

"Fox McCloud, you're the Sabre I heard all about from the rescue mission?"

"The one and only! Thing is, that Skye character really cleaned up, I can't really take much credit for that win. Here, it's almost the same situation." He turned and looked at the bodies strewn about, Falco was scratching his head, and Katt had a paw to her muzzle in shock. The other Blackhook members kept their cool, although Fox noticed that the white spaniel Fay couldn't keep her eyes off him.

"We should probably get to the bridge." Fox said, drawing his blaster and carrying casually in his right hand, Blackhook filed in behind them, their rifles keeping a constant watch on their surroundings.

Krystal stood up, looking down at the victim. "There's no sign of blaster wounds on any of these corpses…"

"Man, who took these guys out?" Falco asked to himself aloud, looking around making sure there were no crazy ninjas around or anything.

The group of 10 made their way across the graveyard docking bay to the large double sliding doors at the back, which slid open with a quiet hiss as they made their way through. A couple of gasps were heard from the group marveling the massive pristine white tunnel, and they were the only sounds that could be heard. Their footsteps echoed throughout the chamber, and were only met with the soft hum of the ships systems operating under their feet.

"Check out these platforms…" Sabre said, stepping onto one of the large white disks "docked" at the side of the tunnel where they came out of the docking bay. A holographic console appeared in front of him as he stepped on. "Looks like this thing is the transit through this thing, I bet it can take us to the bridge."

"Okay, then, everyone on the platforms." Fox said, grabbing his own. Sabre and the Blackhook squads platform was already zipping away down the tunnel when the pilots got on theirs.

"This looks like fun." Falco said, stepping onto the platform. He was surprised it didn't even budge under his feet despite it being suspended in midair. Being the last one on, Fox tampered with the pad and found the bridge in the destination directory. He had to look up to realize they were moving, there was absolutely zero force applied to him as the platform began moving; it felt like the ship around them was zipping around, not them. "What the, do these things have gravity diffusers on them?"

"Slippy would just drool to get his hands on one of these." Falco said, trying to peer over the edge of the craft to see if there was any tell tale signs of thrusters or anything of the like.

The ladies all remained silent, noticing the bodies sprawled about along the catwalks lining the tunnel. Some platforms were stopped in midair with corpses laying across them. Krystal even spotted one falling down from an upper catwalk. "This is a massacre…"

The platform stopped on the edge of a catwalk that led to a more grand set of double doors, that they could only assume was the entrance to the bridge. Sabre and his men were waiting for them there. "Ready to breach when you are." They raised their rifles.

Fox and Falco had their blasters ready as well, Krystal was holding her staff. Katt didn't even have a weapon handy. Mina was simply keeping her arm inside one of her long-coat pockets; Fox felt it was safe to assume she had a sharp throwing weapon of some sort ready.

As the doors slid open, all of them rushed in at once, their weapons pointed at the sole standing figure in the room. It only took them an instant of observation to see that it was as who they all suspected deep down.

Skye, in a tight black stealth suit, was standing in the center of the bridge, facing them with his hands behind his head. "Thank you for delivering my message, Sabre."

"No problem," the lion said, lowering his rifle. The rest of Blackhook let their guard down as well, but the pilots still had their weapons trained on Skye. Fox looked at him with a snarl. "My guts telling me this is just another trap."

Suddenly the pink figure of a female tiger appeared before them, beside Skye. "It's no trap."

"Before I begin my lengthy confession and explanation," he said with his hands still behind his head, "Allow me to introduce Victoria Trace, the AI of this vessel, and the mastermind behind the success of this operation."

The tiger smirked at them. "Might as well put those weapons down, boys and girls. For all intents and purposes, I AM this ship. Shoot Skye, and you won't get far." They did as they were told.

Skye looked over to her and shook his head. "Let's not make this reunion any more tense, please." She nodded and stood with her arms crossed.

He let his arms down from the back of his head out of discomfort. "I think it is time I explained everything, from the beginning. Please…" he gestured to the many seats around the bridge, some still holding their former owners. "Have a seat. This may take a while."

Skye took the captains seat and spun it to face them before beginning to explain. "Over twenty years ago, I was head of the research and development team at Space Dynamics SFX, the military funded corporation that you all know as the company responsible for the design of the Arwing and the Landmaster, we had just finished the first unit of Arwings, the very same ones that Star Fox purchased, and later on brought into combat in the Lylat War."

"As most of you know, Andross had a fling for hiring pirate bands to make small scale raids on Cornerian facilities and bases before the war to make strategic strikes without making himself known too early, one such group being, of course, Star Wolf. My sister Janice was a member of a small unit that was tasked with the boarding of the Cornerian orbital research facility, and the Space Dynamics SFX platform, and steal all of the plans for the Arwing and all related weaponry. No one knew that Andross was behind that raid, the official report said it was pirates."

Mina was eyeing him more closely than anyone in the room; she knew at this point that Skye had lied to her about what actually happened to his sister.

"Fortunately for us, the wing of Arwings we had constructed consisted of six fighters, not four. When the pirate band appeared and made its intentions known, I knew that the Cornerian planetary defense force wouldn't arrive on the scene quick enough to help us. I took the Arwing out, alone, and tried to stave them off. Little did I know, I was forced to duel with my own sister, whom I had no idea was working for Andross."

"I only knew it was her when she spoke on a wide hail, I specifically remember her yelling at us; "Run, Cornerian Cowards, My name is Janice Greyson, and I will be your deaths!". My comm systems weren't working, so I was forced to take her on directly to stop her. Her fighter was no match for the Arwing."

"I managed to make her surrender and pull her into the research base, and the security forces took her into custody. A week later, I discovered she was to be sentenced to execution." He looked down to the floor as he said this, pained to bring up such tortured memories. "I wouldn't have it. She was being escorted up to the platform where she was to be hanged, but I took action. I stole the gun off of the guard beside me, shot him, then shot the guard that was to work the lever. There was a lot of noise and commotion, plenty of gunfire too, but somehow the two of us managed to escape the compound. The last two Arwings were being stored nearby, and we stole them, taking them into orbit."

"She never told me she was hit, only when I tried to talk to her on the way to Katina did I notice her breathing was labored. By the time our Arwings reached Katina, hers was simply drifting. I blew it out of the sky to hide any evidence we were there, and hid myself and the Arwing at the old family farm." He paused for a moment, catching himself before a tear could make itself known.

"That was when I lost myself. Rather than allow the Cornerian government to find me, I brought the Arwing straight to Venom, where Andross was glad to put me to use in his forces. I learned with the best, and after a pain staking two years, became the leader of the Scarlet Hand, and we were Andross' iron fist during the prelude to the war."

"Instead of being deployed where we were originally destined, Andross pulled me aside and gave me new orders. My memories were to be input into a computer chip that would be stored in my brain, and the rest of my team would work on installing me as a sleeper agent in Star Fox, where the chip would reactivate, giving me precise orders on how and when to neutralize them."

"But…" Fox interrupted, "They never succeeded, you never got into the team before the war ended, and now that by this crazy coincidence you actually joined the team, the chip was reactivated, which is what happened down on Zoness?"

"Exactly."

A tear dripped from Mina's eye. "But you didn't go through with it, knowing what the implant would do to you, you sacrificed yourself anyway to prevent yourself from carrying out your orders…"

"Again correct."

Fox looked over to Krystal, who shook her head. "Every word of it is true."

"Along with the neutralization of this ship and the timely liberation of Lucy Hare, I provided the intelligence that prepared the Cornerians for this attack. Also, I discovered the actual fate of Amanda Toad."

Fox's eyes doubled in size. "Wait, what?"

"Surviving members of the Scarlet Hand still loyal to Venom were sent in advance of the Aquas attack to inject the poison into Amanda themselves and induce her into a coma, and the cure would have been used as a bargaining chip. Fortunately Slippy joined Star Fox before this could be put into motion, and the plan was abandoned. I now have knowledge of this cure, and have sent the appropriate information to him."

"In exchange for all of this… All I ask is your forgiveness."

The bridge was silent; Fox looked to each member of the team. Krystal hesitated, but nodded to him. Falco simply shrugged, Katt nodded solemnly, but Mina simply kept her eyes on Skye.

Fox stood up and walked over to him, Skye standing up in turn. The vulpine put his right paw on Skye's shoulder and said with a smile on his face. "Welcome back, Skye. We missed you."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Great Fox II, Bridge**

**10:14 PM Lylat Standard Time**

The team, including the newly reinstated Skye, assembled on the bridge. The image of General Peppy Hare took up the view screen. "Well, Skye, as much as it makes me nervous to see you around again, we couldn't have pulled off this victory without your intervention. I'm going to include you on the payment roster plus a 25% extra hazard fee, as a proper thank you."

"It's all I can ask for, General, thank you."

"In the mean time I'm going to be pulling more ships up from the planetary defense line now that I know that our front line is secure, with the Macbeth Defense System back online we don't need nearly as bulky a presence here, so we can begin preparation for our final assault. The Indignation, courtesy of Skye, is going to be instrumental in our counter attack. Without it, we would be essentially caught in a stalemate with so few ships remaining."

Falco looked smug. "Hell, with that thing on our side, we already got victory. All we need to do now is wrap it up and ship if off to Venom with a bow tie."

"Unfortunately, Falco, it isn't that simple. They still have strong defenses on Titania and in Sector Z, and that isn't even taking into account the fleet they probably have in orbit. We all remember Area 6."

"So, what's the plan General?" Fox said.

"You guys are practically a fleet on your own, but you're gonna need even more fire power if we're gonna deploy you as such. I know you guys acted on your own fine during the Lylat Wars, but the enemy is far more dangerous this time around, and even the newer Arwings can't take a pounding from their battleships like they used to."

"Which means what exactly?" Katt interrupted. "You're gonna be sending an escort with us or something?"

Peppy sighed. "Fox, I know this is against every moral you have as the leader of Star Fox, but just for the rest of this war, I want to offer you a temporary rank in the Cornerian Military and give you command of the Indignation."

"You already know I'm going to say no to that."

"Hear me out on this; the rank isn't going to be a leash, far from it. It just needs to be there so you can have command of the men that are going to be working under you. With so many casualties from the battle tonight I need as many good officers as I can get… You'll still be paid like a mercenary."

Fox was silent for a moment. "…I'll think about it. Call me again in the morning."

"The Indignation will be going through a full refit of its crew and transfer of command codes and whatnot for at least the next week; you have plenty of time to think about it, even with how much help Miss Trace has been. We'll keep the Great Fox II safe if you choose to accept, don't you worry."

The image winked off screen, and Fox turned the captains chair around to face his team. "What do you guys think?"

Falco shook his head. "I hate military life, but if it's just gonna be a rank without any other strings attached, I could go for it for now. Plus, maybe we can convince him to give that ship to us after the war is done with, eh?"

"What would we do with a ship that big?" Katt shot at him.

"Errr…" He took a moment to think. "Well, I still think we should get a replacement for this old bucket."

Fox didn't disagree, but he went on to the others anyway. "Skye, Mina, Krystal, thoughts?"

Krystal shrugged. "I don't see the problem with it, Fox, if it makes Peppy's job that much easier; I fail to see why not. Like he said, we will not be losing out on our payment."

"I am already accustomed to military life; it will be no problem for me." Skye added.

"Hell if I give a damn." Mina said.

Fox stood up and stretched before heading to the door. "I'll give him an answer in the morning, for now I am whooped. I'll see you all in the morning."

Before he got to the door, it slid open. Two figures were there, Slippy in a lab coat, and to everyone on the bridge's delight, the blonde-haired pink skinned Amanda, one hand resting on her pregnant-stretched stomach. The team all burst out with Hello's and Welcome Back's as the sick looking woman made her way onto the bridge.

Slippy rushed at Skye and almost knocked the big cat over, embracing him. "It worked!" He cried, "The cure worked! You saved her, Skye!"

He laughed, wrapping an arm around the delirious toad. "It was a pleasure, my friend."

Amanda's normally bubbly and cheery voice was rasp; Fox figured it was probably only temporary. "Hi everyone!" She took a nearby seat, looking exhausted.

Skye looked to her and back down at the green frog that was only half his height. "You should get her to lie down, Slippy, she won't be fit to be moving around for a day or two yet, especially with that baby on the way."

Slippy's professional demeanor returned in a snap, and he jumped back from the cat, looking over at his wife. "Of course, you're right. We should get you back to my quarters, Amanda, you'll have hibernation sickness for a bit yet."

"Okay…" She said, struggling to stand up. Falco was surprisingly the first to snap to her side. "I think I better help you with that."

She smiled. "Thank you, Falco." Katt was smiling too. "What a gentleman he's become."

He shot her a betrayed look as he kept a grip on Amanda, slowly bringing her off the bridge, Slippy following him and taking her other side. The avian looked down at the toad and smirked. "Well, looks like everything turned out alright today after all. What are you gonna do now that your pregnant wife is back awake?"

"Well, I can't bring her on the war path with me, we might have to go back to Aquas."

Amanda shook her head. "No, dear. I won't allow it, you need to help your friends, I can stay home by myself, Mr. Beltino can help me if I need anything."

"I thought you were the one against me going to war?"

"That was BEFORE they poisoned me and my baby, and destroyed our home town!"

He looked ahead, determined. "Okay, you got it; Slippy's back in business."

"That's the husband I know."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Half and Hour Later**

**Skye's Quarters**

Skye laid back on his bed in naught but his jeans, reflecting alone on all that had happened. His plan went perfectly on line and everything was as it should be again, and he was going to be back in the cockpit of the Assassin alongside his comrades, finishing off the last of the Venomian Empire. He smirked at the notion of getting his final revenge on Dash and his regime for everything that had happened.

Suddenly his door hissed open, and who else did he expect but the gorgeous Mina. She simply said "Hello," walking in and letting the door snap shut behind her. She didn't bother turning on the light, her night vision gave her enough sight without it to see Skye half naked on his bed. With a sliding motion he sat up on the edge of his bed.

"I'm glad you came, Mina."

"Don't make me regret it."

She sat down beside him, and hugged him, a tear quickly landing on his shoulder. It was soon joined by more, and Skye returned the hug and held her close. He stroked her back comfortingly as she sniffled over his shoulder. "You came back to me…" She said.

"I never had any other intention, I wasn't going to let that implant stop me from getting back to you."

Her muzzle made its way up to his and they met in a passionate kiss, her tears stopping when they broke. Even in the dark, his natural night vision could pick out the matted fur on her muzzle and the desperately injured expression. "I couldn't even live with myself, you're the first man I've ever felt this way about, and to think you betrayed us all, I had to watch you die on Zoness, Skye… I had to watch you die."

He put a finger on his muzzle, interrupting her. "Not for a moment did I think of betraying you, or the rest of the team, even with the threat of an impending painful death. If it takes every minute for the rest of my life I swear to you, I will set that memory far into oblivion. I've done everything I can to rectify what Andross did to come between us, I only hope deep down you can forgive me for everything that happened."

She kissed him again, more passionately than the last time. "Of course I forgive you, stupid." She broke into tears again, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling herself close.

Skye held her to him close until she cried herself to sleep, he laid her down on his bed as gently as he could, wrapping her and himself in the covers before drifting off to sleep.

He had recovered what this war almost took away from him; now he was going to pay Dash back ten fold, in bullets.

**((And how was THAT! One of the longest chapters, and I think one of the best period personally. Before I get on to chapter 15 (I need time to think about what I'm going to do next anyway) I'm going to go back and fix up the chapters up to this point, a lot of the desperately need a good proof reading. If anyone wants to volunteer as a proofreader for future chapters, send me a PM! See you next time!))**


	16. Chapter 15: Shadows within Shadows

**Chapter 15: Shadows Within Shadows**

**August 13th, 7:24 AM**

**Fox and Krystal's Quarters**

_"So we meet again." _He thought, as the nefarious beeping disturbed his rest adamantly. _"You know, I loath you. I detest every part of your being. I would take great pleasure of ripping out your innards and jumping rope with them."_

Although despite his wishes for violence, the beeping persisted. Fox reached around for his blaster, but instead his paw hit something different altogether; it was something soft, warm and cuddly. He carried on blindly searching, knowing nothing soft and cuddly would bring an end to his accursed nemesis.

Then his paws met more fuzziness, but it was softer this time. Out of curiosity, he gave a squeeze.

"What the… Fox, what are you doing?"

Then he snapped back into reality and sat up, the communications alarm was beeping away again, and his left paw was on Krystal's breast. He pulled it away immediately and blushed stupidly. "Ack, was looking for my blaster."

"Going to shoot the wall again were you?" She said with an eyebrow raised.

Hoping to change the subject, he yelled at his rebellious wall. "What is it, ROB?"

The familiar robotic voice obliged him. "INCOMING COMMUNIQUE FROM GENERAL HARE REGARDING A NEW MISSION STATEMENT."

"New mission statement? What's that supposed to mean?" Fox said, jumping out of bed and grabbing a pair of black sweat pants that was just lying on the floor beside their night table and putting them on. He didn't worry about a shirt on such short notice, his body was nothing to be ashamed of anyway.

"Forward him to my screen, ROB." he said, matting down his head hair roughly and standing with his paws together behind his back, shaking his head to get the last remnants of sleep out.

The General, in his usual red uniform lit up his screen, this time from the briefing room aboard the Patriot. He sat in a black leather chair at the head of a long table. "Fox, I hope I didn't wake you."

"You did but don't worry about it, what do you need from me old timer?"

Peppy cleared his throat, ignoring the stab at his age. "We found out that there's an underground syndicate supplying arms to the Venomians, and that they're based at Kew. I can give you the rest of the details when you're more awake, as I would rather speak to your entire team regardless. Can you have them assembled in your conference room?

"Will do, call back in an hour."

"Understood, Hare out." The screen winked out, and Fox lost his professional posture, slouching and taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "Wonder what he's got in mind?" Fox asked Krystal, who as soon as she was out of view immediately began to dress in something presentable. She donned a sky blue tank and matching jeans quicker than he realized she had gotten out of bed.

"If there's a black market ring selling weaponry to the enemy, I imagine he would want a loud, coordinated strike to scare off any other underground attempts at selling them."

Fox shook the sleep out of his head and said "It's odd though, since when do black market types sell to military bodies?" He threw on a pair of black jeans rather than the sweat pants, and a matching sweater.

"I suppose the remaining Venomian forces hiding behind our side of the battle line would be desperate for supplies, it doesn't surprise me."

"Desperate they may be, but where would they come up with that kind of money without any supply routes to Venom?"

Krystal was the first out of their room, and looked left and right down the hall. She spoke back into the room to Fox before the door closed again on its own. "I'm sure Peppy will give us more details, Fox, I'll start waking up the team. Should we get breakfast first?"

"Nah, we can eat on the way to Kew."

"Okay." She said, hanging a left towards the furthest occupied room from the main lift, owned currently by Mina.

She knocked first to be polite, but with not even a sound in return she let herself in with a press on the door's keypad. To her surprise, there were no signs of life inside, and most of Mina's belongings weren't there. Krystal smiled to herself once she realized where Mina probably was.

The door shut behind her as she headed for Skye's room. She knocked again on his door instead, and heard a shuffling from within amongst a few mumbles. A disgruntled Skye opened the door to greet her, leaning against the door frame in naught but his boxers and a very grumpy frown. Rather than putting the effort into saying hello, he just raised an eyebrow in question. Krystal didn't even have to try to probe his mind to hear "What do you want?" projected on the surface of his consciousness.

"Sorry to wake you two up, but we just got a call from Peppy and we're going to be getting a briefing up in the conference room in about an hour."

"Got it." he thought at her before vanishing into the dark room again. Krystal spotted the shadow that was Mina wandering around in the background as her view thinned from the doors closing. If not for her telepathy, she never would have noticed.

She headed up to the next persons room, Amanda's, before realizing her repeated mistake and turning towards Slippy's.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

_**One Hour Later, 8:30 AM**_

The conference room contained a mostly awake team, but there were a couple groggy corners groaning to the tune of Falco and Skye who were still rubbing their eyes once in a while. Fox simply assumed they had late nights.

"So, now that we're all here…" Fox started, spinning his chair around on it's rotating stand to face the conference room screen. "ROB, call up Peppy and feed him through the view screen here."

Without an affirmation the screen buzzed to life within a few seconds. Peppy was already there, sitting on his captains chair as per usual. "Fox, I was just about to call you again. Everyone's here, I see."

"Bright and early for duty, as always." he said only half sarcastically.

Peppy sat back. "First you're probably all wondering why I called you all up instead of just relaying a message, and this is because there is probably going to be some personal affect to what I have to say."

"Go on."

"Recently the scout frigate _North Star_ stumbled upon a secret that may be a large portion of the reason we've had so much trouble with the remaining forces in the area. It's been confirmed that an underground syndicate based somewhere on Kew is selling capital ship class weapons and ammunition to Venomian ships in the area, allowing any ships that run our blockade to restock before wreaking havoc on our defense stations."

Fox nodded, noticing Falco and Katt looking at each other curiously.

"The thing is, we also have the name of this organization. They call themselves The Hot Rodders."

Falco and Katt snapped into much deeper attention after hearing that last detail. Fox knew they used to be part of that group, Falco in particular having been raised by its former head who died years ago.

"What's the scoop?" Fox asked.

"We want you to stop these guys in conjunction with Blackhook, to whom I'm certain you are already familiar with. Destroy their ammunitions dump, and capture whoever's in charge. They need to be taken apart. What my question is; is this going to be a problem with your group's two former members of the gang?" He glanced at Falco and Katt, who both looked disgruntled.

Falco shook his head. "No way, old man. One of the biggest and most important rules that held the Hot Rodders while I was still in them was never to take sides in a war, and never get involved with the military. Whoever's in charge now seems to have forgotten that, and it's about time we put that punk down."

Katt added on. "In fact, I'd like to volunteer us to go down with Blackhook, we know how they work and I've been to their headquarters more recently."

"As long as you wont be emotionally compromised, Miss Monroe, I see no problem with that. Make sure to fully brief with Blackhook once they get there, and head straight to Kew. If you already know where their base of operations is, I can get straight to the mission objectives."

Fox nodded, his legs crossed under the table. The only one who wasn't paying rapt attention was the half asleep Amanda, who wouldn't be taking part anyway due to her pregnancy.

"First and foremost, no matter what happens, their ammunitions dump must either be secured or destroyed if their ground force is too overwhelming. If capture is a possibility, we have the cruiser _Excellence_ in far orbit that you can call in to have retrieve the weapons at your discretion. They also have a contingent of marines on board for backup should the need arise."

The old hare scanned Falco again to gauge his reaction. "The second objective, and still important, is the capture of their leader James Draigan, a black fox who at this point has become a direct danger to our troops. If he cannot be captured, instead recover his personal computer or download it's main drive. Perhaps we can rely on that instead for information on enemy troop movement and presence through his client files."

"Sounds straight forward enough," Fox said, "What's Blackhook's role?"

"Their main headquarters and their ammunitions dump are two different locations. While not very far from each other, you will require two separate groups for the objectives. I would prefer having Star Fox deal with the 'munitions because of the ability to give yourselves air support while Blackhook goes for Draigan, but ultimately as a mercenary the plan of action is all up to you."

"Understood, how are we going to be reimbursed?"

"If the munitions are destroyed, one hundred thousand credits. If it is destroyed and you capture Draigan or any source of information about Venomian movements, two hundred fifty thousand. If you capture Draigan and the ammunitions dump, four hundred thousand."

Fox whistled, Peppy really wanted those guns badly. "Okay then, send over Blackhook and we'll get underway.

"Thanks, Fox. Peppy out." The image of the old hare winked out and the team plunged again into a dimly lit conference room.

"Sure you wanna go with Blackhook you two?" Fox said to Falco and Katt.

"Yeah, we might not roll with them anymore but they're still a like family to us. If this Draigan guy is screwin' it up, he'll be dealin' with us." Falco said, sitting back on his chair with his wings behind his head.

"Okay. Falco and Katt, go down to the docking bay to receive Blackhook and brief each other on the plan, then we'll all go down and get something to eat."

"Will do." Katt said, and they both stood up and walked out. Fox noticed that Falco suddenly didn't seem tired at all anymore- a good sign. He was taking this assignment seriously.

Fox got right down to business as soon as the door closed, his attention returned to the matter at hand. "ROB, check the coordinates we just got from Peppy and check the Kew satellite maps for a picture that would work best for a mission planning blueprint."

After a couple of seconds, the conference room screen lit up once more. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is our target."

The compound was almost completely severed from the society of the grey, rocky world with nothing but a dirt road leading from it. It featured one large building taking up half of the area, the entire area being encased in a tall metal fence that Fox assumed would be electrified. Several sentry towers were set up at regular intervals around the fence. There were plenty of trucks, and the still picture that was taken showed dozens of armed guards frozen on their trip around the facility. A much smaller (but taller) building Fox assumed was the command house, with two long houses lined up behind it against the fence that were probably the guards quarters.

Most of them only took a quick glance at the area, but Skye's eyes were darting around analytically, probably working plans A through Z in his head with matching escape routes as they spoke. "The best method of approach here would have to be disguised entry, if it's possible to get the correct identification."

"Could be possible," Slippy added, "We would even be able to get away with saying the charges we bring to destroy the depot were part of an incoming shipment."

Fox put his paw on his chin in thought. "We have to at least try to get the depot captured, though. That's a pretty big bonus he offered."

"The only way I could see that happening," Skye said, "Would be the complete extermination of the compounds defending unit, and the assurance that the crews coming to extract the munitions would be safe. All of the while making sure that we don't set the depot alight thus killing us all in the process."

Fox shook his head. "I'm sure the Excellence can handle the details as long as we secure the place long enough for their marine complement to settle down."

"Well we can't exactly duke it out amongst the merchandise, or it'll be the death of us." Slippy said. "That would be a pretty stupid way to die this late in the game."

Krystal suddenly joined the fray. "I have an idea."

Everyone stopped bickering and looked at her. "If we can succeed with a stealthy insertion and get our paws on whoever is in charge at that depot, probably in the command building; whilst putting on a loud distraction nearby, we could use my ability to make him deploy a large portion of his men to investigate."

The plan set in Skye's mind, and he added on to her idea. "Where we set up a trap, thus leaving room for the Excellence to deploy and finish the takeover."

"Exactly." She said.

"Alright, let's get specifics down, people." Fox clapped his paws as if to snap them all into planning mode.

**Great Fox II Galley**

Falco and Katt walked into the Galley first, leading in the guests to the Great Fox. Sabre in first, with Jack, Fay, Miyu and Ian not far behind. They all took seats in the larger table in the center of the room. Katt spoke first once they were all seated. "So, I trust you were all briefed on what we're doing?"

The green furred lion Sabre, dressed in gray urban camo fatigues, shook his head. "Actually, no. We just got back from dealing with a Venomian insurgence on Macbeth's surface and got deployed straight here, no idea why."

Katt looked at Falco and he sighed. "Fine, I'll explain." He turned to the wall where there was a big screen set up normally where they would just watch the morning news. "ROB, satellite display of the Ace of Hearts nightclub in downtown Keystar City, would you?"

The screen winked to life quickly, split into four quadrants showing multiple views of the night club and surrounding hangar bays and such. "This is the headquarters of a gang me and Katt used to roll with, the Hot Rodders. Thing is, these guys are selling big guns to the bad guys. We need to find their leader, Jim Draigan, and either capture him, or pop him and download the contents of his computer."

"Sounds simple enough," the red fox Jack Latham said, "What's the catch?"

"No catch as far as were concerned, just that they would prefer his capture over the alternative." Katt said.

"So, lets talk." Sabre leaned forwards onto the dining table. "Insertion point? Rules of engagement? What's the scoop."

Katt shrugged. "We've been given the go to do whatever we please as long as the objective is complete, it more depends on what path you guys would fancy. Just keep in mind we can't really just blow up everything in sight, cause this place is right in the middle of the planets capital city."

Falco was looking at Sabre. "We'll follow your lead, we're just there 'cause we used to be part of this gang, but don't doubt us. I'm sure you've heard about our exploits anyway."

Sabre looked at him with a crooked eyebrow. "We're damn sure you can fly, but can you hold a gun straight?"

"I was a gun runner long before I was a pilot, kitty."

Sabre shrugged off the racist remark taking it as a joke, and stood up to take a closer look at the screen that was showing his target. One of the screens switched to a view of Draigan, the black furred fox in his standard purple house coat that practically had _"I'm a pimp, bitch."_ written all over it. "How smart's this guy, you know?"

"He probably knows his little operation was detected but isn't sure what we'll do about it. He's probably more worried about a military raid than a stealthy insertion." Katt said.

Sabre looked over to Miyu, and the lynx grinned evilly. "Sounds like my play field."

Ian looked at the screen. "By the looks of it, we shouldn't have to bother with any other building than his night club."

"That depends if we need the hangar for extraction or not." Jack added.

After a minute of everyone in the room thinking, Sabre started. "So, we need to get into the night club cold, and have people securing every point we need; namely an exit from the club, an a route to an extraction vehicle." He pulled a cigar out from one of his combat vests pockets, showing it to Falco. "You mind?"

Falco just shook his head, and Sabre pulled a lighter out of his vest without hesitating and lit the brown rod up, bringing it to his lips.

"Should be a cinch to set up an appointment to get in with Draigan, and get a hold of him." Miyu said.

"Problem is getting out intact, not to mention making sure no one sees us starting to download the drive and capturing him." Falco added.

Miyu looked over to Falco. "That's what I specialize in, flyboy. I can get into the security office there and make sure no one is alerted to the mess you guys are gonna make."

"Then to get him to extraction?" Sabre questioned, still looking at the screen.

"Can't we just get him to the roof and fly him out?" Fay said innocently.

"Not without serious fighter pursuit, probably. This guy must be pretty rich to be selling guns to Venomian battleships, so he probably has a couple fighter wings hidden in that hangar building."

"You have your specialty, that's ours." Katt said, winking at Falco.

"Damn well better than the fighter cover we usually get…" Sabre concluded, turning to sit at the table, taking a puff from his cigar. "Alright, here's the plan, ladies."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Surface of Kew**

**Outside of the Ammunition Depot**

**11:21 AM Lylat Standard Time**

**1:28 AM Kew Time**

"So, let's go over the plan one more time." Fox said in his communicator inside of his Arwing, which was landed a few kilometers out from the depot.

Slippy's Bullfrog was landed right beside his, Skye was landed much closer to the base with his cloaking device and had set up his sniper rifle with a superb view of the compound. Mina and Krystal were already on foot towards the back of the depot and the fence closest to the barracks, which were right behind the command HQ.

"First, Mina and Krys need to get through the command building undetected and get a hold of whoever's in charge, and Krystal will puppeteer that guy and order a large portion of the guard to go find a military insurgence, which will be a trap set up by the marines from the _Excellence_. When that happens, the depot's going to have a really light guard left, which will be taken care of by Krys, Mina, Skye's sniper support and my aerial support. Slippy is going to be on station to assist the marines from the Excellence with aerial support and heavy bombing. Any questions?"

No one answered. "Alright, waiting for your signal, Krys."

=-=-=-=-=-=

Krystal and Mina, both dressed in black stealth suits, nodded to each other before quietly stepping out from behind the large rock they had been eyeing the compound from. Mina had her sword with her as usual, as well as a suppressed 10 mm pistol on her hip, and an assault blaster. The TSAL -12 Assault blasters were heavier and larger versions of the standard blaster that dealt higher damage and boasted a higher rate of fire, but were much too large to use one handed like a pistol like one could with the smaller model. Krystal had her staff, a silenced-and-scoped bullet fed XM87 assault rifle slung on her back, and a 10mm of her own on her belt with a standard 8 inch dagger on a boot holster.

After a couple of minutes keeping quick and low on their feet they reached the outer perimeter. The guard towers mostly had their spotlights pointed outside of the yard; but to the ladies advantage they were already too close to the guard barracks, with plenty of cover from almost all of the spotlights. The ones they weren't covered from were pointing in a totally different direction.

Checking for border patrols, Krystal pulled up her silenced rifle and waited for Mina to get them through the fence. She pulled a laser pen off of her belt, and quickly drew a large circle in the fence, backing up to let the section fall out of place. The two hopped through the hole and kneeled on the rocky ground inside of the compound behind the barracks buildings.

Krystal tapped the earpiece and whispered, "Skye, do you have visual on us?"

Skye, 500 meters away from the base, looked through the scope of his rifle down at the outside end of the guard barracks (which were on the right side of his vision) and switched it to thermal imaging mode as he set up the bipod. He did indeed see the two deep red blotches crouched behind the barracks that were his two teammates. "Affirmative, I'm in position and have a visual."

"Good" she whispered, "We're making our way deeper into the compound." She nodded to Mina and they kept low, walking between the two tight-knit long houses towards the larger building they assumed was the command building.

Skye took a look around the complex to get an idea of it's soldier complement. Two in each tower; a sniper and someone on a mounted heavy repeater laser. There were at least 20 guards wandering around the ground of the complex, four wheel-based jeeps dotted around the base that had their engines off, each had a mounted heavy repeater blaster on the back of them. Other than that, he assumed there would be quite a few sleeping at this time of night in the guard houses. Hopefully at least 10 of the guards and all of the jeeps would screw off when the distraction started.

He spotted a guard heading to the space between the two guard buildings- or at least in that general direction. He steadied his rifle, tracking the mans head. "Krystal, Mina, one bogey heading towards your position, I'm going to drop him as soon as he's hidden behind the command building, make sure to hide the body."

"Copy," Krystal whispered in return. Skye took a deep breath, and let it out smoothly and naturally, allowing his rifle to steady. His crosshair settled on his target's back between his shoulder blades, the unfortunate wolf in his sights had only seconds to live and he didn't know it.

_Fire on the exhale, not on the inhale._

_If you think you will miss, miss low._

_Squeeze, don't pull._

He felt a hard kick to his shoulder and his ears registered the faint snap of the suppressed rifle. He steadied it again immediately to look down the scope to check if he hit his mark. As suspected, the wolf lay dead right at the opening in between the two guard buildings, he spotted Krystal popping out first and grabbing him by the arms, dragging the corpse out of his view.

Mina popped out next, going to the back door of the command building and pulling another device from her belt; a worm camera. Sticking the object under the door gave her a view of the inside of the room, which contained two men behind a desk, both armed with sub machine guns. One was asleep, and the other was on his computer doing god knows what. Neither were facing the door. She waved back to Krystal, who came over to her.

Mina whispered, "Hey, think you can suppress their minds long enough for us to cap them?"

Krystal bent over and looked through the worm cam and spotted both of them. "Yeah, once I have them I'll give you the go ahead…"

Krystal stood back from the door, and stared at it as though looking through it. Mina started to notice her teammates eyes growing a bright blue. Krystal slowly nodded, and Mina cracked the door open, silenced pistol in paw. Two quick snaps, and the guards were dead with holes in their heads. The one that was asleep dropped off of his chair with a semi-loud thunk.

She waved in Krystal, who returned to normal and walked in behind her, closing the door behind them. Both keeping their pistols out, they scanned the room again.

"You feel anyone else nearby?" Mina whispered.

"One awake upstairs, I think he's monitoring communications. One more at the 3rd floor sleeping comfortably, I wouldn't be surprised if he's the one in charge. Although he's asleep, I can feel an arrogant air about…-"

She interrupted her. "Okay okay I trust you, let's just go. I'll take point."

Setting words to action she kept her pistol forward and crept up the metal stairs to the next floor up, which if Krystal was right, would contain a wake man on the communications console. Quietly but efficiently, she cracked open the door and slid it open. A raccoon with an earpiece lazily turned his head to look, but it was too late before he realized who was disturbing him at this time of night. A 10mm bullet dug into his brain neatly, and he dropped off of his seat with a clunk. They both froze, completely silent, before Krystal whispered. "The boss wasn't disturbed, stay here, I'll grab him."

Mina nodded and sat at the communications console familiarizing herself with it while Krystal walked upstairs, not as worried about stealth to capture a sleeping man. Opening the door to the 3rd floor yielded a typical rich gangsters hideout; nice furniture and a big screen TV, she could feel his presence through the door at the other side of the lavish room.

She opened the door, conveniently he was facing down, and she pulled the pair of handcuffs she brought off of her belt, closing them around his wrists which she moved not caring about whether he woke up at this point. Once the cuffs slid into place, the unusually squat black bear shifted in his pajamas, creaking open his eyes before cracking into a panic.

"What the…" He said groggily. "What is the meaning of this?" He growled.

Krystal began to work her magic, invading his mind and slowly beginning to take over. She crawled her influence into every corner of his conscious self, and after a few moments she knew everything about him and how he behaved. Once she was completely in control, she removed the handcuffs, and forced him to stand up. Still in a long pajama gown, the black fur ball did as she commanded without question, and even without looking to his side at his captor. Krystal walked down back to the communications room, and her slave followed.

Mina smirked at her and her companion when they arrived, sitting back in the chair leisurely. "So far so good," Mina said out loud this time. "Let's get this communiqué out and signal the others."

Krystal pressed her earpiece. "Krystal here, we have the head of this show under control. Start the raid."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"--nder control. Start the raid." Fox heard in his cockpit speakers. He started up his Arwing, and Slippy did the same. Fox dialed in the _Excellence_; "Excellence, Fox McCloud here, begin phase one, start the distraction."

A professional male voice sounded back to him. "Copy that, Star Fox, marine contingent is mobilizing, ambush is set."

"Acknowledged, Excellence." Fox dialed back into his squad frequency. "Krystal, send the message, wake up the base and scramble them to the road heading west to… deal with a nosy group of Cornerian troops. Once you're ready call me in for air support. Everyone ready?"

"Skye here, ready."

"Krystal here, we're good to go Fox."

"Slippy here, ready!"

"Okay, go!"

=-=-=-=-=-=

Krystal stepped aside for her slave to walk past her, who picked up the radio receiver and yelled into it with a vigor that neither of them expected from such a zombie like victim. "Alright maggots! We just intercepted comm traffic from a group of Cornerian troops a couple of clicks down the west road out of the base, we can't let them get this close to the depot and live, boys! All of ya', take the jeeps and take them out! Go, go, GO!"

The two looked out the window, and men started to scramble to jeeps and trucks that were around the base. Engines started, spotlights started scanning the perimeter more closely, and the communications board exploded with activity. The scramble practically started itself with no further prodding.

"This is Skye," they suddenly heard in their headsets, "Confirmed that the enemy is active and on the move, waiting for go to engage."

"Wait until everyone that's mobilizing has left, hun." Mina said. Krystal, noticing how she referred to him, looked at her awkwardly. Mina glared. "Don't pretend that you didn't know…"

"Okay, I won't." Krystal said, pulling out her rifle and cocking it, Mina followed suit with her heavy blaster, checking the charge and powering it up.

Jeeps began to scramble out of the front gates, but to make sure the place was defended properly the guard towers were up and ready, or at least a lot more alert than they were. Unfortunately for them, they have no idea where the real pain would be coming from…

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The big brown bull Harry Eisner sat in the back of one of the convoy trucks leaving the depot. The whole thing was a big rush, but the other guys kept going on about a big marine unit nearby that they had to take out, so here they were at 2 in the morning rushing into a fight. Just to make sure he didn't screw up in his rush to wake up, he checked his blaster a second time. Charge was full and safety was off. Ready to rock and roll.

Rock and roll was exactly what he did.

Suddenly the truck shook, and he heard a lot of commotion. Looking out of the back of the truck he saw blasters pouring out of the sides of the road and shot his eyes wide open in panic. "We're under attack! It's a god damn ambush!"

Suddenly there was a big impact that threw him to the other side of the truck and he knew the damn thing had rolled over. He saw a couple guys getting up before him and firing around the corner of the opening in the back, so he took the other side.

He could see the helmeted bastards right away, and started firing back at them. He had no clue if he was hitting them but they were certainly ducking out of the way. Once he heard a scream in the direction of the ditch he knew he got that lucky shot.

Suddenly those marines scrambled backwards and stopped firing. Harry became confused, before hearing a great roar that he could have sworn was coming from the air.

Looking up, the last thing he saw was a bright spray of heavy plasma fire.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Slippy pulled up from his strafe and turned back hard after a boost to check on the damage; and it looked like there was barely any activity left at the ambush site. He grinned. "Slippy here, the ambush worked, those guys won't be coming back around the depot."

Fox set up for his own strafe. "Fox here, is the assault group ready?"

"Star Fox this is Lieutenant Nicholson of the 232nd marine unit _Battle Dogs_, we're ready to strike the depot on your go."

"As soon as you see me strafe the guard towers make your move, Lieutenant."

"Roger that, sir. We're ready."

He was shortly lined up with the guard towers that were facing the direction the marines would be coming from. Machine gun fire came up at him as the sentries saw him, but those little guns would have no effect on the Arwings shields. He opened fire, and lasers tore the west fence -and it's guard towers- up as he shot by.

Skye, up in his perch, whistled as he watched the line of lasers light up the night and crush the guard towers he had spent the last half hour watching. As soon as the light was low enough for him to see again with night vision, he started picking targets amongst the guards that were left scrambling in confusion. While shifting his scope he noticed the marines running up towards the depot, and grinned at how well the mission was proceeding.

Lining up his crosshair on the first man he saw, he fired as the dog was raising his rifle to his hip to fire a spray at the oncoming marines. The only thing he that sprayed was his blood as his head was partly dislodged from his body.

Krystal and Mina, deciding it's time to move, readied their rifles. Before running out into the fray, Krystal pulled the knife she brought out and stuck it into her bear slaves neck, letting him drop and bleed as the two rushed out.

They weren't met with the full attention of the remaining guards when they burst out of the command building, most of them were watching the group of marines that were storming in from where there used to be an intimidating fence and defensive line. On top of that, the marines that did the ambush were starting to arrive from the main gate. Guard towers started to light up and fire at the oncoming force, but were picked off rapidly by further strafing runs from Fox, and _very carefully aimed _ rocket fire from the marines. It was a thirty second slaughter.

There was probably only a dozen guards by the time the two women ran out of the building, and several were picked off before their eyes. The rest were hiding behind crates and such scattered about the yard, but they had cover from the west… Mina and Krystal were looking at them from the south.

The first was only several meters away from them, and Mina took the first blaster shots on the move and skidded behind a crate to have cover from her enemies from the north. Krystal dropped to a prone position immediately and took a few shots at the remaining guards further down the line.

After that spray, there was one left who had cover from all sides in a pile of crates… Or so he thought. With a well predicted shot from Skye, the cat took a bullet right in the gut through the crate that was covering his west side. Mina and Krystal being the closest, they ran up to check if the defenders were dead, and they only heard a gurgle from the last remaining victim as the feline died out.

Slippy and Fox made one last trip over the depot as the marines secured the warehouse. The team heard over their comm: "Lt. Nicholson again, Star Fox, the warehouse is secure, good work. We're going to get this stuff shipped to the fleet at Macbeth immediately, I'll make sure to send a glowing report back to the general."

"Much obliged, Lieutenant. Star Fox out."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Meanwhile…**

**1:30 AM, Downtown Keystar City**

**Outside of the Ace of Hearts Night Club**

The three Blackhook members, Sabre, Fay and Jack sat in a black hovervan parked at the other side of the street from the night club owned by the mob boss Jim Draigan, their target for the evening.

Sabre was dressed in a well tailored blue suit, tie and all, all puckered up like a businessman. He was unarmed at the moment, but he figured he could procure an SMG or something from Draigans personal guards once they bagged the crime lord.

The red fox Jack was dressed like a classic professional body guard, in a well pressed black suit with an obvious earpiece and black shades. The white, normally-scruffy dog Fay was well groomed with her fur matted down well, and as professional looking as she could be in a long black dress with long cuts up the outsides of each leg for maneuverability, a 10mm purposely poorly concealed in a holster attached to her bare left leg. She donned a smaller looking pair of black shades, and had more of a ruthless assassin look about her. She was also to play the role of a well paid bodyguard, and had even agreed to leave her lucky red ribbon back on the Great Fox to help perfect her ruse.

They had set up an appointment with Draigan regarding procuring three cargo ships that he had offered on a black market site that the Cornerian Intelligence had their eyes on for a while. All Draigan would be getting in payment for them, would be a heavy dose of sedative, contained in a needle concealed up Sabre's sleeve.

"Comm check." Sabre said. A very small bug in his ear crackled with affirmation that there were people on the other end. Ian and Fay nodded to him.

Ian was on a balcony of a hotel room with his rifle set up on it's bipod on the railing overlooking the night club and the buildings behind it. The lights of his room were shut off behind him to conceal his presence, further complemented by the naturally dark grey of his feathers. "Mitchell here, in position."

Miyu was wearing a deep red, short cut cocktail dress, with naught on her but her comm bug in her ear and a 5 inch blade holstered on her thigh, concealed under the dress and a flick of the paw away from killing someone. She was walking a dreary sidewalk of the city approaching the nightclub. "Clawford, ready."

Katt and Falco were to land at the gang's hangar as part of their own, separate "surprise visit." They were still on good terms with the Hot Rodders (according to Katt, anyway) and didn't expect to be thrown out. The cover story was that they were going to be looking for a quick job to pass the time while both fleets recovered, and offer their services to help stop the escaping transport once Blackhook team nabbed Draigan. In truth, they were going to launch just before the gangs ragtag fighter unit and blow them away.

The Cats Claw and the Sky Claw glided side by side down through the cloud cover of Kew, the huge glowing mark on the planets surface being their obvious clue as to the location of the city. At their velocity, they would be at their target location in a matter of minutes. "Lombardi here, we're inbound. ETA at the night club, damn quick."

"Comm check is green, mission is go."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Sabre, Fay and Jack all go out of the hovervan in unison and started across the street, the two makeshift bodyguards flanking the makeshift crime boss. The automatic doors of the club slid open for them, any sound it might have made having been drowned out by the steady beat of the loud techno that nearly shook the room they entered.

They coolly and professionally observed their surroundings, despite the ear-busting loud beat, the place wasn't jam packed with club-goers. There were couches, most filled with groups of friends young and rich alike, some with one lone man flanked by gold-diggers looking for their latest mark. Several platforms donning scantily clad dancers wrapped around the typical strippers pole, with lust thirsty men of all ages and species thrusting out fists full of Kew's currency notes.

On the tactical side of observation, Sabre immediately noticed that there were several black-clad guards observing the club, and some observing him. Most had different weapons openly visible but he didn't doubt that every single one of them were armed in one way or another. Even if they weren't, it was a good idea to assume they were.

Two such guards approached the three, noticing they didn't enter with the greedy look of an average strip club customer but rather the sharp interest of businessmen. The first, a big gator, pulled a list out of his pocket, and tapped it with an outstretched finger looking between it and their visitors. "You're Ted Nordrock? Here for the cargo ships?" he shouted over the music.

"That's me, show us the way."

"Hold up, we're gonna have to check you for weapons."

"That won't be necessary." Sabre said, nodding once to each of his companions. Fay decided to show off, staying in character. With the flip of her left paw her 10mm pistol was sent spinning above her head without even disturbing her dress. The two guards stepped back watching the pistol and nearly reaching for their own, but she caught it by the barrel and showed them the grip, all without breaking gaze with the buff reptile. The two guards exchanged glances, and the other, a green mallard, took the weapon from her and stowed it in his suit coat. Jack pulled out his own weapon in a much less spectacular manner, and simply handed it to the bird who was closer.

"And you?" the gator shouted. Sabre simply shook his head rather than yell again, and the guard simply took his word for it, assuming he wouldn't have bodyguards if he were armed. "Alright, this way."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

As Falco suspected, the roof of the Hot Rodder's hangar bay opened for them without any angry demands over the comm from their hosts. The two Arwings descended slowly and carefully into the expansive building, finding a large enough clearing not too far away from the exit that they could both land in. He landed first, and Katt beside him without any trouble.

It looked about twice as big as a football stadium on the outside, but looking from the inside made it look even larger than that, especially because it was dug in deeper underground to make the hangar almost twice as large. Small cargo ships, all kinds of different fighters and even a couple of small cruisers were scattered around the massive structure. A pair of mechanics rushed up to meet them, a mid-aged hound dog and a younger looking lynx boy trailing him doggedly. Falco jumped out of his cockpit to meet them while Katt was still powering down her fighter.

"Well, if it ain't old Falco Lombardi. What brings you back here? Hero life ain't doin it for ya?" the dog said.

"Pays a lot better than the old boss ever did, that's for sure." To answer his question, Falco pointed to one of the cargo ships he recognized from the advertisement on MercNet, the same that Sabre and his boys were looking to "purchase" from Draigan. "I saw that baby on the site, and was looking to buy her. Is the old boss around?"

"Well I got some bad news buddy, old Cobalt got himself shot running a raid on a Venomian cargo ship a couple of years back. New guy in charge now who bought the whole operation, we just call 'im Jim. I know he's sellin' the ships, but I think he already has someone here today who was gonna buy 'em. Who knows, maybe it's not too late."

Falco almost jumped when he heard Katt speak from right beside him. "We can still grab a couple new guns from the Papetoon shipments while we're here, I guess." She turned around and gestured to the Arwings. "Think you can fuel us up, Russell?"

"Yeah, no problemo." He gestured to the lynx kid beside him and he went running for a fuel canister off amongst a pile of crates not far from the fighters. "It'll cost ya though, since you two don't roll with us anymore."

"Well, unlike then I can afford to top up at your guys' prices." Falco scoffed.

"No shit, eh? So… what's the deal with the new life with McCloud, anyway…?"

As the two old gang buddies reminisced, Katt noticed a fighter covered in a tarp not far from where they were. She couldn't put a finger on it, but she could have sworn the silhouette seemed familiar. Beside it was a pitch-black furred bat finishing dragging the tarp over it, wearing an ominous black and red jacket that gave her the jitters. The bat noticed her staring and gave her a cold, deadly glance that made her turn away.

She interrupted the two. "Falco, I have a bad feeling about this."

He arched an eyebrow towards her, careful not to give away their true purpose of being there. "Bad feeling about what?"

She whispered into his ear. "See the covered up fighter over there? I think it's a Wolfen."

He copped a look without staring for too long and whispered back. "I think you're right; It's a bit of a coincidence for Wolf and his team to be here now but not so much that we should worry. Let's keep an eye on that pilot anyway."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

As Miyu strutted her way through the front doors of the night club, she made sure to return the glances she received from the already lust-hungered men throughout the club. Her dress, demeanor and makeup all screamed that the lynx was there for the same kind of work all of the other women were.

She however had a very specific target, or at least a very specific place to deal with her target. She needed to find her way into the security office, where she would have control over the night clubs alarms and security cameras. Based on the scan she saw on the Great Fox, it would be on the second floor and probably lightly guarded as it was at the end of the hall where girls would bring the rich VIPs for private dances.

The stairs to the next floor were unguarded, so it was safe to assume it was public and she wouldn't attract suspicion if she scaled them, so she did, making sure to shoot suggestive looks to some of the more desperate looking men here and there to play her part, making sure to keep her back arched to press her breasts against the inside of the dress, as was typical behavior for your everyday whore.

Like a kid in a candy store, she eyed up every man that came close enough to smell her perfume as she navigated the place. It wasn't long before she stumbled on the hallway she had remembered seeing on the blueprints of the place; at the very end of it was a door simply and obviously marked "SECURITY STAFF ONLY". A raccoon holding a smaller sub machine gun was standing just outside the door, fiddling with an apparently defective lighter.

Miyu took the opportunity and glided over beside him. "Hey there big guy." she said, sliding up beside him. She pulled her own lighter from a pocket inside her dress and lit the mans smoke for him.

"Thanks gorgeous," he said clumsily, looking down at her. "You looking for work?"

"Always." She said suggestively. She gestured towards the security office, and the raccoon looked back at her grinning stupidly, totally oblivious to how he was about to lead a Cornerian special ops officer into the heart of security for the night club.

She followed the coon in, and as soon as the door was closed behind him, she flickered an outstretched arm and nailed him with the side of her hand on the side of his neck at a specific pressure point, dropping him. She locked the door behind her, and sat at the security console under a series of screens each with a view of a different important room in the night club, and even the hangar. "Clawford here, I have control of-"

She never saw the one who hit her from behind, who had been waiting silently behind the door to the room.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Sabre, Jack and Fay were brought into Jim's office promptly by the two goons that had greeted them at the door. Two more were inside at the far end of the room, each flanking the man sitting behind the extravagantly decorated desk. However, the one behind the desk wasn't a black fox at all…

It was the infamous Wolf O'Donnell.

"Mr. Lionidis!" Wolf grinned. "Glad you could join us. I hope you weren't hoping to find old Jimmy… He's already been dealt with. Tie 'em up."

Jack automatically snapped his arm back into the larynx of the duck standing behind him, and he dropped choking, Sabre pulled the hidden dose of sedative out from his sleeve and was about to throw it at wolf, but his arms were stopped…

Stopped by Fay.

The gator slipped over and gripped Jack in a painful looking chokehold, and Sabre simply let himself have his hands bound behind his back by his former comrade, being clueless on how to react. "What the hell is going on here?"

Before Wolf answered him, he heard his comm bug come to life. "Clawford here, I have control of-" Miyu was cut off, nothing but static greeted him.

Wolf, who was still sitting gingerly, offered his hand to the chair in front of him. "I suggest you take a seat, we have a lot to talk about."

The gator dropped a limp, passed out Jack onto the ground like a ragdoll he had become bored with, and stepped beside Wolf. "Wolf, I just got the buzz in from Jenny, she couldn't grab the other half in time."

Wolf shook his head. "No problem, we have sufficient bait now. Did Vince grab the bird and the cat?"

"Yeah."

"Like I said, no problem." He looked back to Sabre. "You see, this was all a trap. Jimmy hasn't been selling guns to the Cornerians, our boy drilled in on the Patriot told the old hare that and recommended sending you. It was the only way to get your guys' attention."

"For what?" Sabre said out right, looking back at the traitorous Fay, as pained as he ever let himself be seen in a combat scenario.

"There's something going on in the background of this war, and has been for a while. This is bigger than me, you, Blackhook, or any of us in the Scarlet Hand… Hell, it's bigger than the war, and either side of it."

Sabre looked up to Fay again, and back to Wolf. "You three are Scarlet Hand?"

"Myself, Fay Spaniel, Drake Tuttle, Janice Sipher who you heard me call Jenny, and formerly Victoria Trace who is presumed dead, Skye Greyson who has had his memory totally fucked up, and of course Leon Powalski, who was killed pretty damn recently over Solar against Star Fox."

"What do you want me for?"

"Because, all of us in the hand are wanted for such a high price on both sides of the field that poking our heads out in a restaurant will make half the people in it pull blasters on us. However, we know something that can't be ignored. As much as I hate to admit it…"

"You need Blackhook and Star Fox to be your arm."

"It ain't that simple. It'll make more sense once we get all of you penned up aboard my ship, the _Executor_ and we explain everything. In the mean time…" He stood up, pulling his favourite silver heavy pistol out from behind him and pointing it at Sabre's face. "You're coming with us. Bryce, grab the fox. Fay, go get that damn bird sniper outside before he figures out what's going on."

"You got it, boss."


	17. Chapter 16: The Truth

**Chapter 16: The Truth**

**August 13th, 1:09 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Orbit around Kew**

All Fox heard was the hum of his Arwing's engine and systems as the fighter broke out of Kew's atmosphere, with Mina, Skye, Slippy and Krystal behind him. For a change, it was a mission that finally went right on track; at least up until this point. Falco and Katt were 9 minutes late with Draigan, and he was beginning to worry.

"Are they still on radio silence?" he asked again, the third time since the beginning of that painful 9 minutes.

Krystal obliged him, also with a tone of worry. "No change, Fox."

Suddenly there was a change, Mina picked it up on her radar first, and broke of in its direction. It was a cargo ship, one of the ones the other team was supposed to be "buying" from Draigan. "I think that's them."

Fox, Skye, Slippy and Krystal followed in the direction of the cargo freighter. Trailing the cargo ship, five more ships blew through the atmospheric cloud cover; Wolfen class fighters.

They spoke first; Fox immediately recognized the rugged voice of his rival Wolf on the radio. "Don't worry McCloud, they aren't hurt. Today ain't the day for us to fight. Come peacefully to my stronghold in the asteroid belt around Sauria, I sent the coordinates to your ship. I just want to talk; and for gods sake, kid, tell the General about any of this and all of them die."

Before Fox could yell back, the Wolfens and the cargo ship was gone into hyperspace. "Damnit!" Fox yelled. "What the hell?!"

"That was Wolf! What is he doing here?" squeaked Slippy, turning around towards the Great Fox. The others followed suit. "What could have happened down there?"

Skye took up position behind Slippy. "Something isn't right here. How could Wolf's team, which specializes in air combat regardless, apprehend Blackhook, Falco and Katt?" He sighed. "And if this was an intended trap, why wasn't there one waiting for us?"

"I get the feeling we're going to find out. Everyone get back to the Great Fox, we're setting a course for Sauria immediately." He switched frequency to talk to ROB on the Great Fox. "ROB, warm up the ships engines and set a course for Sauria, engage as soon as we're all in the docking bay."

**An Hour Later**

**Close Orbit around Lupinhold**

The Arwings launched from the bay of the Great Fox in the same prompt manner as they left Kew. Fox lead, with Krystal, Skye, Mina and Slippy in close pursuit. As soon as they broke the outer border of the asteroid field, they could spot the one massive lit up asteroid near the center; Fox immediately assumed that it was Wolf's base of operations.

"Stick close, watch the asteroids, but watch harder for any Wolfens." Fox growled.

No one answered him; it was another grim scenario amongst many this war had thrown at them. Fox was uneasy in his seat; he was being forced to see Wolf again under the most painful circumstances possible. Not only was it a hostage situation which he feared above all else, the hostages were two of his closest friends, not to mention an entire team of Corneria's best.

As quickly as they entered the asteroid belt, several red blips popped up on the radar. Four Wolfens were behind the five Arwings; they didn't take the locks they could have easily achieved. "It's just for security, big guy…" he heard a deep male voice he recognized as Panther's. Fox decided now wasn't the time for heroics.

The Arwing's were guided to a big opening in the asteroid. In single file they flew into what turned out to be a massive landing bay, several large ships including the cargo ship that fled Kew were strewn about with plenty of room to spare. Three other Wolfens were sitting together in the bay, one Fox immediately recognized as Wolf's customized one, the Red Fang.

He was out of his fighter's canopy first. Two black clad guards holding small sub machine guns rushed to him, a pair rushing to each other Arwing as well as they landed… However, he noticed that a pair didn't run to Mina's. The first snapped Fox's attention back to his direction. "Hey, the boss is waiting for you upstairs, McCloud, let's not keep him waiting."

He caught Krystal's glance which told him she also noticed that Mina was left unnoticed, but they let it smooth away once they were all reunited again by the guards surrounding them. Slippy was looking around nervously, and Fox couldn't help but notice the grim expression on Skye's face, who wouldn't break sight off of Mina. Panther, a big gator, and surprisingly a Cerinian wolf woman caught up to them. He set his curiosity aside, figuring that they were indeed going to have everything explained to them by his captor. Wolf did say he wanted to talk, after all.

The team was led up a few flights of stairs at the back of the hangar and eventually to a long hallway going deeper into the asteroid. The door at the far end of it yielded to them with a hiss as they approached. It was a large conference room, the far end of it one big window looking at an asteroid-clouded view of Sauria. It simply looked like a larger version of the one on the Great Fox. Wolf sat at the far head of the table, with a black bat in an ominous black overcoat with red buckles sat beside him. As soon as Fox started to enter the room, he saw what brought him to the asteroid; Falco, Katt, and all of Blackhook being ushered into the room as well at gunpoint; the spaniel, Fay, being one of the gun bearers. The other grunts took off as soon as their payload was dropped off. All of the captors looked extremely disgruntled, but otherwise unharmed.

Fox looked to Falco. "You guys alright?"

"Not the most uncomfortable cell I've ever sat in, we're all okay."

Wolf interrupted them by clearing his throat. "Welcome to Lupinhold, Star Fox. Not very glad you could join us, especially this early, but I have little choice. Ever since you idiots considered taking a spot on the Indignation I had to put my plans into much quicker motion." He gestured to the remaining seats around the table, Fox hesitated at first, but watched as all of his companions grudgingly took their own seats, and the other pilots of Star Wolf as well. Fox sat at the end opposite from Wolf, with Krystal and Slippy at his sides.

"Are you going to explain what the hell is going on now?"

Wolf shook his head, holding up a paw. "Hold your horses there, kid; first, a few introductions, and a couple reintroductions." He pointed to himself first. "I'd like to reintroduce myself as Commander Wolfgang O'Donnell, commanding officer of the former Scarlet Hand, having replaced Skye after his noble little sacrifice.

Everyone from Star Fox's jaw dropped, except for Katt and Falco's; apparently this had already been explained to them. Skye's eyes shot wide, obviously having no memory of what he was talking about.

Wolf pointed to the bat next to him. "This quiet guy here is Lieutenant Vincent Xavier, team stealth specialist, and the only member of the team none of you have seen before, except maybe for the bird and Katt. He used to work pretty closely with Leon, but that green skinned idiot didn't recognize Janice's voice so it took some fancy acting not to blow her cover. I think Vince likes working alone more anyway."

"Who the hell is Jani-" Fox tried to ask.

"I'll get to that, damnit!" Wolf growled, interrupting him.

Vincent didn't even acknowledge his introduction; he was twiddling his thumbs and gazing into them as if he were trying to make them explode with his mind.

Next, the lupine pointed towards Fay. "Allow me to reintroduce Lieutenant Fay Spaniel, team engineer." Fay waved happily completely oblivious to the mood in the room, and Fox noticed immediately that the members of Blackhook shook their head. He figured they had already been briefed that she was a traitor.

"Next we of course have Lieutenant Bryce Veran, the newest member of our team and our enforcer." Wolf pointed at the huge alligator, who was the only one left standing with his arms crossed. His grin was one of a confident predator, showing off his fangs. "Nice to meet 'ya." he said with a very outlandish accent.

As if continuing by naming off contestants of a game show, he pointed to the Cerinian girl that Fox didn't recognize. Krystal, however, did; this was the same woman who had fought her and Mina aboard the Cerinian Colony. "This is of course the lovely Dawn, who I'm sure a few of you are already familiar with… She isn't an official member of the Scarlet Hand but she's a great 'gal to have around anyway" he said jokingly. Dawn nodded to Krystal in particular, who was stunned to see her fellow Cerinian there.

Next he pointed to Panther, but his joking grin turned into a frown. "Nah, you all know him." He shifted to Mina.

"This fine young lady over here, however, is the real star of the show. Star Fox, it is my glorious pleasure to introduce you to the one who has played you like fiddles this entire time, Lieutenant Commander Janice Sipher, our infiltration expert, who until now you knew as Mina, her middle name."

"WHAT?" Fox and Skye yelled in unison. The other team members looked equally stunned.

Mina -or Janice, apparently- stood up and took a bow. "I'm surprised I wasn't figured out sooner, frankly. My method of getting onto the team wasn't my most cunning plan but you are all a lot dumber than you look. Although, I have to admit I put on a pretty good show, even had to act depressed for the security cameras in my quarters when Skye was fried by his implant, but I knew it was nonlethal. Andross recruited Victoria to design it, who he didn't realize was under our influence." She looked to Skye. "Your new memories aren't your real ones by the way; Andross programmed them to his advantage. I'll explain more after."

The snow leopards head dropped to the desk, and he was shaking his head in his arms, completely lost.

Wolf sat back down. "There's two others; Drake Tuttle who is currently undercover on the bridge of the Patriot, and Victoria Trace, who has been missing for a while now; we lost contact with her near the beginning of the war and we're starting to think she might have got gunned down in the crossfire somewhere…"

Janice stopped him. "Wolf, can I do the honors?"

"Up to the reason we brought them here, Jenny, I call dibs on that."

"Okay." she grinned. "I guess I should go all the way to the beginning, shouldn't I?" It was obvious she was having a lot of fun; she had been bottling it up for a long time. She took her seat again. "First off, to clear the record, we aren't working for the Venomians. The part about us failing to get Skye aboard the Great Fox as an insurgent was all true; Andross forced Victoria to make the implant that would be put in Skye's head not knowing that she was a close friend of mine. As soon as he was turned loose we finally found the means to break from his grasp entirely, and Andross tried to kill us. He failed of course, on all accounts, and we've been vigilante operatives ever since. Vincent has been working as a mercenary, and you all know what Wolf and Leon were doing. Fay, and Drake who is the only one of us not present other than the obviously dead Leon, decided to take on the biggest challenge they could and infiltrate our enemy. He's currently the second in command aboard the Patriot, the Cornerian command ship, and you all know about what Fay has accomplished."

Fox remembered Drake from his communiqués with the Patriot, and he couldn't keep his jaw in place any longer.

Janice continued. "Anyway, we dedicated our collective resources into finding out how Andross did what he did; the repeated resurrections, the huge head and hands deal, basically the only things he never told us. We knew at that point, if we were to extract our revenge, we were going to have to uncover that secret."

For the first time, the bat spoke. His voice reminded Fox of a deeper version of Leon's, the voice of an arrogant killer who enjoyed his job. "We started digging up what we could about the bio weapons, and after the Sauria crisis, more about the power the Krazoa wielded."

"What did you find?" Fox interrupted.

"We're getting to that." Janice said. "We found out that both Sauria and Venom seem to share a unique energy source that we haven't been able to identify before recently. After the Anglar Blitz we gave up our research, and for five years we almost completely lost touch with each other, because we were unable to make any progress. That was of course, when Dash decided to go on a killing spree. Once we saw the bio weapon attack on Aquas, we knew that we had just earned our second chance at finding out how to finally track Andross down."

Fay spoke up this time. "The big hint was when we realized that Andross was acting through Dash. The only way Dash was going to go on a killing spree like that with no real provocation, and have access to all of the hidden bio weapons Andross left behind, was if Andross was to puppeteer him some how. This is when we had our theory about telepathic energy being the source of his power. In order to sample this energy and learn more about it, we needed someone -or some thing- that either knew a lot about it, or actually used it."

Krystal was awe stricken. "You needed me; you planted Mina - uh, Janice - in the military base on Macbeth so we would stumble across her, and so you would have access to me to learn more about my telepathy…."

"Exactly; we got you aboard, and then we had Drake approve the transfer of the Arwing Interceptor prototype aboard the Patriot where it would be given to Star Fox, and namely, me." Janice said. "Our theory proved to be correct, in the end. After analyzing you for a couple weeks and sending the data to Fay for her to figure out, we compared the findings with the energy samples from the port into the caverns deep in Venom's crust, and the energy all over Sauria, and found a perfect match."

Wolf shook his head, looking completely out of the gleeful mood he was in only moments ago. "Unfortunately that's where we hit a brick wall. Why did Venom, of all dead planets, have so much of this energy? How did dick head learn to use it?"

"That was when we got lucky again." Panther spoke up this time. "When Draigan sent us to the abandoned research station and we found the Cerinian Colony, Dawn came along with us and told us something very interesting indeed…"

"The temples on Venom's surface," Janice said, "are of ancient Cerinian design. They contained the blueprints for something called a Telekinetic amplifier, which gave Andross the ability to manipulate Telepathic energy, or as we've come to name it 'Mana', so well that he could project physical, immense images of himself anywhere he wanted, or freely manipulate minds anywhere in the Lylat system as long as there was some device present to boost the signal. Basically, he had a remote control on anything he wanted in Lylat, hence how he started the war."

Fox shook his head. "Wait, you mean to say that we never killed him, we only somehow destroyed telepathic images of him?"

"Considering the fact that he needed to be "revived", probably indicates that whenever his avatar was destroyed it damaged the amplifier somehow, which would explain why he switched his intent to Sauria; so that his damaged amplifier could wield a much stronger surviving source of Mana to operate properly. Thankfully, you managed to kick his ass there too before he got too out of hand."

Falco looked genuinely pissed off. "That means the lousy fucker's hiding out somewhere, working to fix his amplifier so he can do it all again… That rat bastard!"

Fox looked straight to Wolf. "So with that out of the way, what's with all of this? Why is this necessary?"

Wolf's expression turned to one of mocking. "We were just going to come out and talk to you politely about the whole thing, but you god damn retards nearly accepted a position aboard the Indignation as military officers, it would have been completely impossible to get you here unnoticed. This entire idea would have gone to hell so we quickly set up a trap to drag you mongrels here."

"But you still haven't said why you need us! Why do you want us here?"

Wolf's expression darkened. "Because as of this point on, Corneria is just as much our enemy as Venom is; the fact that Andross so easily provoked another system wide war means his amplifier is at full power again, and we have reason to believe that good ol' Peppy Hare is under the influence, as well as a good number of the Cornerian Senate. There is no one we can trust in this system anymore except for us. Do you understand?" He gestured to everyone in the room. "We are the strongest willed collection of minds, the heroes of Lylat, and the only ones who Andross has never been able to manipulate with the amplifier, so we are the only ones who can be tasked with taking him down for the last time."

Fox shook his head. "So what if I believe you and Peppy is Andross' bitch. What do we do, just go underground and wait for the fireworks to end?"

"Hell no; and that's why we need you here, Fox." he noticed that Wolf didn't call him by his last name that time. "Together, we're a force that can sit down both armies. We need to find out how Andross works his little machine, find out where he is, and put a stop to this all. It ain't about money anymore; this is about survival."

"The problem is," Skye finally spoke, "We don't have any leads that you don't. We don't know where to start looking any better than you do."

"You don't, Skye, but Fox does."

Fox perked his ears up. "What? But I don't…"

"Andross killed your father with a gravitic bomb, but no one knows where, all of the relevant information was deleted. The only person that knew anything else was your mother, who he also killed. She must have passed that information onto you, Fox, it's the reason Andross always wanted you dead. Not for revenge, but for what you knew."

Fox staggered. "But, Peppy was there; my dad was killed by Pigma over Venom!"

"You seriously think that porky could have shot down James McCloud? He could have easily shot down everyone in this room in six seconds flat! Why do you think there was no trace of James' fighter?"

"I don't know!" he yelled, standing up. Everyone was staring at him.

That was when it dawned on him.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

_**Twenty Seven Years Ago**_

_**The Day of James' Death**_

_"Daddy is late, mom!" the young Fox yelled to his mother, running down the stairs of the McCloud house on Corneria as fast as he could. "He said he would be home by yesterday mommy! Where's daddy!?"_

_When he reached the kitchen, he saw his father's friend Peppy there with his paw on his mother's shoulder, who was sitting at the table. Fox had often mistaken Peppy for his uncle, even though their species were not even close in ancestry. "Uncle Peppy! Where's daddy!?"_

_That was when he noticed his mom was crying, sobbing into her left paw. Peppy turned to young Fox with a grim frown. A tear fell down his eye and one down Fox's shortly after. The young boy quickly realized what was wrong. "Why is daddy late, uncle Peppy?" he breathed._

_Peppy's replay was nearly a whisper. "Daddy isn't coming home, Fox." He tried to say it as softly as he could but failed miserably, he kneeled down before the young kit. He always had nightmares about this moment. "Someone offered Pigma a lot of money to make sure daddy couldn't come home, and I…"_

_He couldn't say any more without Fox interrupting him. "No! Porky wouldn't hurt daddy! No!" his tears became thicker, and he threw himself at Peppy. "No! Not daddy! Nooooo!" Peppy couldn't do any more but hold the boy tightly to him. "I'm sure his soul made it away from that god forsaken Venom… To a better place, he deserved it more than anyone."_

_"Why did Porky do it?! Why?!"_

**7 Days Later**

_It was late at night, mother and son were holed up in the boys room. Fox was still crying every time his thoughts wandered to his father, which was constantly. He was looking down at his fathers spare pare of sunglasses, the closest memo he had left of the man. Not even the photo album that Vixy looked through with him on that cold night could compare to the legendary sunglasses that he always wore. He tried them on, but they were far too big for him yet. "Why did Porky do it?"_

_It was a question the boy asked repeatedly over the last seven days. His mother knew the cruel answer but never dared share it with him; his father was betrayed by a spineless coward. One of his closest friends, sold for credits. She tried to dodge the question. "Honey, I want you to remember something, okay? Something you can never forget."_

_The young boy looked up to his mother, distraught. "What is it, mommy?"_

_"You need to remember where it happened. I don't know why but uncle Peppy told a fib… Your father went to the asteroid belt Meteo, Fox, not Venom."_

_"But Peppy said…"_

_"Never mind what Peppy said, Fox, never forget it."_

_"Okay, mommy, I won't."_

_"Good boy… Never forget…"_

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Wait, my father was sent to the asteroid belt in the first place to investigate Andross' activities, not Venom! He was sent to Meteo!"

"Meteo? Are you sure?" Wolf's eyebrow raised half in question and half in delight.

"Yeah, there was always a gap in the story that used to bug me all of the time… Why did Peppy tell me he was shot down over Venom when he was sent to the belt? Mom told me never to forget that he was sent to Meteo, not Venom… I always wondered why it was so important!"

Skye spoke up again. "It appears that Andross did to Peppy the same as he did to me; he erased his memory of the conflict and sent him home to tell Fox about a fake story of his father's death…"

"But my mom…" Fox breathed, sitting down, "My mom said they went to Meteo, then she was killed a week later by that car bomb…"

"Bingo." Wolf shouted, standing up with a wide grin. "Fay, are the modified scanners up and running?"

"I only had time to modify the ones on the Executor, but they should be enough, boss."

"We're going to Meteo, everyone get to your ships!" he barked.

"Wait, what are we looking for?" Fox said.

"Ground zero from the so-called-bomb that killed James, of course. If it was a gravity bomb there would still be a gravitic singularity there to this day, so it obviously wasn't. Andross is hiding something there, maybe even his ugly self."

Wolf was rushing out the door with the rest of the group, but Fox yelled again. "Wait!"

He turned around too look at Fox, with an enraged growl. "WHAT?"

"Don't you think Peppy, or whoever Andross' agents are, are going to get a bit suspicious if both of our teams vanish to the asteroid belt for no apparent reason?"

"For all he knows, you're still on Kew! Now, let's get moving!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Skye walked out last behind Fox, not noticing the reintroduced Janice around the corner.

She gripped his shoulder, pulling him back against the wall beside her. "We need to talk." she said flatly.

"Nothing you say is going to make me brush this aside. Here I am, your former team mate, mind completely scrambled, and you let me make a complete fool of myself aboard the Indignation, spouting an absolute bull shit story like it was the secret to the universe."

"Skye, you know it was for the best. I couldn't reveal myself. You of all people should understand that I-" He interrupted her, pushing away, she slammed him to the wall with both arms this time, facing him. "Don't go away, I'm not finished."

"No, we ARE finished."

To his surprise, a tear fell down her cheek. "Do you want to know why I volunteered to join this mission? The reason I wanted to be the one to get on the Great Fox?"

"Enlighten me."

She produced two small objects from her pocket and showed them to him. They were two gorgeous rings, a sapphire embedded on the top surrounded by smaller diamonds on each. Her tears became thicker. "Do you recognize these?" she whispered.

As suddenly as she forced him to the wall, he was plunged into a flashback.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

_**April 28th, 14 Years Ago.**_

_**Grace Lake, Katina**_

_It was the happiest moment of his life._

_They were on Katina, at the beautiful Grace Lake, surrounded by the budding pink cherry trees all along its border, a waterfall at the far end granting them a spectacular rainbow that was the icing on the cake. They were on a hill over looking the lake, Skye and Janice holding a bouquet between them, chairs set up around them holding the rest of their team._

_Ever since the end of the Lylat War, it had been easy going to hide from the authorities long enough for their trail to come cold. While most of the members of the Scarlet Hand went their own way, Skye and Janice had fallen in love- the one act neither of them thought they could do again after long years of slaughter and hiding in the darkness. That perfect April afternoon on Katina, the two former killers were getting married, with the promises never to take another life again as long as they were along side each other. _

_The few people he knew and trusted were there. Wolf, who actually bothered to get a suit, gave one of his few genuine smiles when Skye caught his eye. Leon was also, amazingly, in a suit, however even that occasion would fail to bring a smile out of him. Skye assumed that Wolf forced him to go at all. Vincent, who at the time was the happy go lucky member of the team, was definitely there, and waved excitedly when Skye looked in his direction. Fay looked even more beautiful than ever, in a flowing red dress that matched her lucky ribbon. The lynx Drake was, as a joke on his part, in his Cornerian dress uniform, and grinned like an idiot every time Skye looked his way._

_Then of course, there was Janice herself, in the most beautiful dress imaginable. He couldn't help the question of how much it cost from crossing his mind a couple of times. It was a long white flowing strapless gown with a beautifully woven golden pattern on her sides that ran from her chest to her feet that looked like ribbons floating slowly to the ground on a breezeless day. Her hair was done nearly as she usually did with her extremely long ponytail, but at the base on her head it was tied in a cute bun with a golden coloured pin through it, the tail hanging down as it always did, except braided._

_They hadn't bothered with a priest; it would be too ironic to have someone of such purity conduct a ceremony binding two killers, whilst being surrounded by killers. They had simply agreed to have a quiet ceremony where they would cite their vows and create a scene they could remember forever. Skye had bought them the most gorgeous wedding bands; the rings he was looking at right now; golden bands with a sapphire on the top, surrounded by small diamonds._

_Skye started with his vows. "For as long as I wear this band, I will be tied with you everlasting, and on that vow I swear never to take another soul that feels, loves and breathes. My heart beats with yours, and through sickness and health, I will be beside you with timeless vigilance, with creation as my witness."_

_They closed for a quick kiss before Janice spoke hers, and it was one of the sweetest they ever shared. "Through the darkest nights and brightest days I will be bound to you, love, through the infused vow of this ring and what it represents; I also vow never to take another life, with this place and ceremony the pen and my love to you, the ink of my signature. I love you, and through sickness and health, I will be beside you always with timeless vigilance, with creation as my witness."_

_Their small audience applauded as the couple rushed into their most furious kiss since their first, which seemed to light up the entire afternoon even more beautiful than it already was. _

_The memory ended with the flash of Fays' camera going off._

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Janice… I…" he went weak, leaning against the wall.

She leaned in close and hugged him. "I couldn't forget."

"Andross…" Skye said weakly. "He… He wiped my memory twice and nearly killed me… So much pain to wipe you from my mind completely, but he never could… I love you too damn much."

Tears streaming down her face, Janice slipped one of the rings on his finger. "I think we're gonna have to forget our vows, though."

"Once he dies… Once he pays for what he took from us in blood… We'll go back to the way it was." He looked down to her, and smiled. "There's stuff you're still going to have to explain to me, though."

She kissed his chest, and looked up to his face with a comfortable smile. "You never had a sister, my middle name is Mina which is why I used it, and my actual last name is Greyson… from you."

He leaned down and kissed her. "What about the Hand? Was I really the leader?"

She looked back up at him, disappointed with the change of subject. "You were, and you knew it was too early for us to declare our independence from Venom and vanish, so you volunteered to take part in Andross' sick experiment to give us time to plot a perfect escape… You gave your position to Wolf." She pulled her face into his chest, and Skye could feel hot tears pressing into his shirt.

"Looks like it worked." he whispered.

Suddenly an angry yell interrupted them, it was from Wolf. "You two, get to your damn fighters! We're on the clock here!"

She nearly jumped off of him, and they started down the hall together, sharing a look of confidence. "Anything else you wanna know?"

"Victoria Trace, isn't she the AI on the Indignation?"

"She was one of Andross' lead scientists, and a great friend of ours. She of course knew all about your damaged memory, because Andross forced her to design your implant. With minor modifications by us, of course, so it wouldn't kill you."

She paused, putting her finger to her chin. "Now that I think about it, we're going to have to get her off the Indignation at some point and back into her body. We'll need everything she knows about Andross' research."

"We'll jump that hurdle when we get to it, I suppose."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**3:25 Lylat Standard Time**

**Hyperspace, En Route to Meteo**

**Great Fox II Command Bridge**

Fox, Krystal, Falco and Katt sat in silence mowing over everything they had just heard. Janice and Skye were doing whatever they were doing in their quarters, and Slippy was going over everything that had happened with Amanda. They had been played for fools while being played for fools, and they all knew it. Krystal, of all of them was the most shocked of all. "Fox, I think I'm losing my power. I mean it this time."

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder in concern for his lover. "When's the last time you've meditated? Didn't you do that to keep your power up?"

"I do every day, I always have. I didn't sense Janice the entire time, I could read her thoughts like anyone else's, but for some reason I never was able to burrow deep enough to find it. I could have figured it out before… but at the same time, I couldn't… something is happening to me, Fox."

He kissed her on the forehead. "It's not your fault, Krystal. Mina…" he stopped, correcting himself. "Janice was trained by the best, they're raised to be able to block out interrogation."

"Fox, that doesn't matter and you know it."

He did, and decided not to argue any further, he just left them in silence before Falco shattered it again. "I can't believe all of this, I just can't; all of this is total bull shit."

"When you go back and think about all that's happened…" Fox said, "It all makes sense. Finally there's a face to our enemy other than the ghost screwing with Bowman's head. We knew deep down it was Andross, but now the theory makes sense."

"Yeah, if there's any bonus to this, it's that." the bird groaned. "Man, things were so much simpler when it was just us, Andross, and those goons in Star Wolf at the other end of our guns. Why the hell did the galaxy have to become so damn complicated all of the sudden?"

Katt was cuddling with him. "Nothin's ever that simple, hun."

"Well, it should be." he almost yelled. "I still can't believe you're trusting Wolf, Fox, of all people. How do you know he's not just looking for whatever weapon Andross was cooking up so he can use it?"

"He ain't that kind of guy, Falco. He doesn't need any special weapon and he knows it, besides, he would never ask my help unless it was absolutely necessary."

"Ok, suppose that's all true, then what happens when we get through all of this and we somehow find and kill off Andross for good? What's stopping Wolf from taking the amplifier and starting it all over again?"

"If he tries, I'll kill him. He knows that."

The room fell ghostly silent. There was no trust for anyone outside of that room now other than Slippy and Amanda. Krystal broke the silence with the question that was on every member of the team's mind. "Do you think Wolf was right about Andross controlling Peppy?"

"It would make a lot of things click if it were true." Fox said.

"Like what?"

"Remember what happened at Aquas?"

_ROB interrupted them, "SECOND DISTRESS CALL COMING FROM AQUAS. CODE BLACK."_

_All of the pilots, including Peppy's, had dropped their jaws. This was ridiculous. Skye broke the silence that fell upon the bridge. "There is no defense force at all in the Aquas orbit. If we do not move to assist them, they will surely be taken."_

_Peppy spoke up now, his voice in a panic. "Slippy can hold his own for an hour; we need to hold Fichina or Venom will have a foothold on Corneria!"_

_Fox shook his head, this decision was not going to be easy. "Peppy, I made a promise to Slippy. We need to go to Aquas. You should probably pull your fleet back to the Asteroid belt for now until reinforcements can arrive, I can't help you."_

_Peppy rose his voice in protest. "Fox, are you going to let all these men die?"_

_Fox stood up at this, completely enraged. "I can't believe you just said that! I would never abandon my friends, you know that! You have a fleet; Slippy is on his own against a Venomian armada! I don't care what you do, but we are going to Aquas and we will come for you as soon as Aquas is secure, and that is the final word on the matter!"_

_Krystal winced; she could feel his rage through her telepathy. This was the first time in years he had gotten so angry, and the first time that it was ever directed against Peppy, who had known Fox since he was a child. Peppy looked just as angry now. "Fox, I am the general of the Cornerian army; I asked you as a friend now I will hand it down as an order; get to Fichina and back my troops!"_

_This made Fox snap, and both Falco and Skye were also pissed off at this. "You are NOT my commanding officer, Star Fox is a mercenary unit and I will decide where we go, not you! I already said I'll return once we are done at Aquas, now we're just wasting time, each second that goes by is another chance Slippy is dead, and worse, his unborn child!"_

Falco scoffed. "How could we forget?"

"And then he sent us into that research station… Why us in particular to track down something like that? Why not just send a special operations team? Was it just a coincidence that we were sent to the only one of those bases that was filled with dormant mutant killers? I lost my damn leg in that fight." He looked down to his prosthetic, tapping it with his knuckle with a frown.

"Then he asked us to join the Cornerian Military on the Indignation." Krystal added. "He above all others always preached to us that in order to keep up your dad's legacy we could never officially join the military, that Star Fox would live forever. Why would he, of all people, ask us to break that vow?"

"There's just one thing that doesn't add up…" Fox whispered. "If Andross has control of both sides, why start a war?"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Great Fox Galley**

The only ones down in the Galley were the members of Blackhook; Sabre, Jack, Miyu and Ian. They shared a table, but weren't eating. The lion was in his combat fatigues with a lit cigar hanging out of his mouth. Jack hadn't changed from his suit, and it was still ragged to hell. Miyu couldn't find time to change either but somehow kept her dress in decent shape and still looked presentable, but her demeanor suggested she didn't give a shit how she looked. Ian was in a black T-Shirt and matching jeans, and was the only one whose expression was completely emotionless.

Sabre spoke up first. "Does everyone get what the fuck just happened?"

Jack pointed a finger at Sabre and squinted a bit, as though trying to dig information out of his brain. "I think I have this straight… This whole time, Andross has been alive fucking with peoples heads using telepathic shit. Fay was actually a member of his old right hand squadron this entire time, and so are two of Star Fox's new pilots. Now, completely out of the blue, the biggest bad guys in the system suddenly decide to team up with us and Star Fox to uncover Andross' magic tricks, which will undoubtedly mark us as rogue agents, and were doing this all off a blind act of trust."

"That's the gist of it, yeah." Sabre grumbled at the fox, and then looked to the other two. "Thoughts?"

Miyu laid back, looking at the ceiling for answers. "I'm still skeptical about the theory that the entire Cornerian high command is under the influence of Andross' machine. Why would he incite war when he had control anyway? It doesn't add up."

Jack frowned. "Sick bastard is probably doing it for the fun of it."

The calculating hawk Ian shook his head. "No, I doubt a scientific genius would be one of the chaotic types who just want to see the system burn. There has to be some reason behind everything he's doing."

"Whatever it is…" Jack added, "I think we're gonna find out what it is wherever we're going. That whole story about the General's memory having been screwed with by Andross had to have been for a reason, he wouldn't go through all the effort of hiding whatever's out here just for the fun of it."

Sabre gritted his teeth. "Tell ya the truth? I'm more worried about how we're gonna to do whatever we're gonna do with both our guys and their guys gunning for us. We're good, but if Andross really has the hold on the entire game like O'Donnell thinks he does, its gonna be the entire system against us."

Miyu frowned. "I still can't believe Drake is one of the Scarlet Hand. He brought our squad together."

"It makes sense, though." Ian said. "It allowed him to give a good excuse for Fay to get in deep with the Cornerians."

"So that's all we were really meant for? Smuggling a Venomian agent into the Cornerian special operations?"

"God damnit, Miyu, quit being so dramatic!" Sabre grunted. "Let's not forget what we've pulled off in our time together. Reason we were brought together aside, we kick ass, and now we're here." His fist slammed the table with finality. "And we're gonna keep kicking ass until Andross is a smoldering corpse for good this time!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**VIP Lounge Room, SWS Executor**

Wolf, Fay, Dawn, Vince, Bryce and Panther sat on nice black leather couches arrayed in a triangle pointing inwards around a circular coffee table. Wolf was wearing an open black vest and urban cargos, Dawn was in her "combat gown", Vince was still wearing his long black overcoat with the blood red buckles and matching black pants, Bryce didn't even wear a shirt, and was just in jeans, and Panther was also in a black vest, and sported a pair of black jeans.

Fay wore a look of genuine concern. "I still don't think it was a good idea giving ourselves away to them just yet, boss. Especially to the Blackhook guys, what if they suddenly decide to report everything they heard straight to Hare?"

Wolf shook his head in denial. "If we're right about Peppy, and I'm pretty damn sure we are, Andross will already have the man painting them as rogues. I doubt they would be stupid enough to flare our position."

"You better be right about this, Wolf" sneered Vince. "We kept under cover successfully for almost 18 years, and if we blew it all for nothing, I don't think we're going to be able to pull it off again."

Wolf sneered back with even more tenacity. "Watch your mouth; you're forgetting who's in charge here. We hid for 18 years because we didn't have a lead on how we were going to send Andross' ass to kingdom come, and now we have it, so hiding time is over."

Vince looked back down at his thumbs, and Panther spoke up. "He does have one point though, boss. What are we looking for? How can you be so sure we're going to turn up something from this little expedition? What do we do if this is a wild goose chase?"

The older lupine shook his head with a sigh. "Don't make me doubt myself, man. I hate to trust McCloud, but after all these years his memory of his mom is all we have left to go on. If it ain't what we think it is, then we don't have a purpose anymore anyway."

They were interrupted by the communications alarm in the VIP room. Wolf yelled at the walls. "Wolf here, what is it?"

"Halsey here, mi'lord, we've dropped out of warp with the Great Fox and are initiating scan for any traces of Mana. I'll update you with anything we fin-" he stopped. "Sir, we've picked up a strong signature already. Maybe you should come up and take a look at this…"

Wolf stood up, and the rest of the Hand stood up with him. "I'll be right up."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The bridge doors hissed open for the six special operatives. Halsey didn't turn to face them; he was staring at the main view screen, which showed them a very interesting image indeed.

They were catching up to what looked like a normal asteroid, but Wolf could see the subtle markings of windows and buildings jutting out of it. It was another hidden asteroid base amongst the field, and it was almost completely coloured blue; the colour that the sensors automatically assigned the telepathic energy it sought out to. "We found our target, sir; another abandoned research station."

"The bastard worked damn hard to keep this one hidden," Wolf grunted. "I think we finally hit our jackpot. Open a channel up to the Great Fox, on main screen."

The communications officer needed no confirmation. In seconds, he was looking at the ugly mug of Fox McCloud again, with a drowsy Krystal resting on his shoulder. "I see the base, Wolf, is this it?"

"You're damn right it is, Fox, it's damn well covered in Mana. I suggest you get all of your boys ready to go, we're boarding it right away and I ain't waiting for you."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The Wolfens of Wolf, Panther, Bryce, Dawn, Fay and Vince were quickly joined by the Arwings of Fox, Krystal, Falco, Skye, Janice, Slippy and Katt. The formidable force of fighters were followed closely by a dropship carrying Blackhook squadron, who refused to stay put while the secret behind much of the system's suffering was unraveled.

The docking bay was more than large enough to fit the group, it vaguely reminded Fox of the very same station that robbed him of his leg, although there was definitely a lot more elbow room. They didn't have to land their fighters tight together, so most of the landings were quick and leisurely. All of the pilots and agents gathered in the center of the bay as the last craft touched down in the expansive chamber.

Fox spoke first. "No sign of other craft, this place really is dead."

Krystal looked almost dizzy. "This place is teeming with power… My senses were starting to dull but here, here I can read all of your minds without even thinking about it. The air… It feels sick, there is all of this power here that all seemed to be derived from great sorrow."

"I feel the effects as well," Dawn said, moving up to her Cerinian relative. "There was much death here."

"Let's head deeper in then, ladies and gents!" Wolf announced. "We have a catastrophe to unravel."

Unlike Fox's first encounter with a research base, the force encountered no crazed mutants or dead bodies lying around the place. In fact, it seemed like the place was only recently abandoned, all of the lights were operating normally and the air didn't taste stale. The mob made their way to the center of the research base in a similar fashion to all of the ones previous; it was that dome room that finally distinguished itself from the other bases.

It seemed completely operational.

The place was lined with terminals, most of them active as though they had been recently used.

Test tubes of similar designs to ones that carried the crazed mutants in orbit of Solar lay mostly empty, save for a couple that had similarly fearsome beasts holed up in them. As the group poured into the chamber, they showed no signs of stirring.

"Amazing…" Fox breathed. "I bet it's all here!" He ran to one of the lit up consoles, the others spreading out grabbing their own, or taking a look at some of the other features of the room, Krystal, Falco and Slippy ran up beside him and looked over his shoulder.

Falco scowled. "It's time to see what this whole mess is really about."

Fox booted up the first file he saw with an interesting title; "March_21". Most of it appeared to be bullshit he couldn't understand, but then he stumbled upon the researchers personal notes. The logs showed up as last edited only weeks before his father had been killed.

_March 21st, Dr. Andross' personal log._

Fox's jaw dropped.

_Four years, four years it has been since I discovered the ancient Cerinian writings on Venom where that fool Pepper had stranded me. Four years since I uncovered the secret to ultimate power. Venom is not nearly the dead planet that they had hoped me to die on; quite the contrary in fact. At first it had utterly baffled me as to why the Cerinians would have lived on that dead planet- the only reason possible was that it was indeed not always dead. There must have been a day that Venom shined as green as Corneria ever could; a day where Cerinians walked its surface as their home world._

_Despite my feverish work on the blueprints they had left behind for the Telekenetic Amplifier, I couldn't help but become curious as to what would have happened to Venom that would have turned it into what it is today. What caused a once livable planet to become a barren wasteland in a geographical blink of an eye? Only one culprit fit the bill; war. Only a war of unimaginable destruction could have caused such a destructive and permanent effect on a planet. What could they possibly have fought over that caused such a catastrophe?_

Slippy yelled out to the others, jumping up and down and waving. "Everyone! We found Andross' journal, come quick!"

_Their massive library left behind didn't speak of such a conflict;, this suggests they never had time to record it. These libraries were indeed in use when whatever destroyed Venom occurred. With technology this powerful, and access to the flow of telepathic power, what could have caused their demise?_

More of the teams began to gather around the screen, squeezing in to get a view. Fox was mesmerized by what he found. He opened up the next log.

_April 2nd, Dr. Andross' personal log._

_The amplifier is finally finished. I have tested it on some of my reptilian colleagues to be sure, and I have been able to establish basic control over their mental functions. This is the most fantastic discovery of all of our kind. With this, I will be able to extract my revenge on Pepper._

_He sent people after me this week, the Star Fox mercenary unit. Thankfully the completed amplifier worked exactly as planned, and I was able to deftly destroy them without firing a shot; I even ended up with a test subject out of the deal, that fool James McCloud. I have no idea how they knew to come to Meteo to find me, but I believe I have remedied the problem. While the swine was no longer a problem as he went is own way to work as a solo bounty hunter, the more fiercely loyal rabbit survivor would have proved to be a problem if not for my new invention. It was a simple matter erasing the location of my research facility from his mind, and I sent him on his way to tell whoever he was to report to that they had found me on Venom. In truth, it has been more than a year since I have walked that god forsaken planet. This abandoned facility I stumbled on by pure luck when I was being smuggled back to Corneria to find more willing scientists through the Meteo wormhole._

_With the capabilities of the amplifier proven, I was ready to make my move. I will begin working on a much more powerful version, with which I can begin to puppeteer the entire system to my will._

Fox skipped to the next file, looking for more mention of his father.

_May 5th, Dr. Andross' personal log._

_My tests have proven mostly successful; the perversion of telepathic energy into a destructive force is as simple as concentrating it in a single being - easily done, with the amplifier - and causing the individual so much pain mentally or physically that their mind turns to pure hatred; the resultant output of perverted telepathic energy can be used to strengthen and mutate the victim into powerful weapons of immense destruction. I have had several successful tests thus far with a variety of species, and I have begun to move them to other cloaked research bases around the system._

_There is but one problem, but I believe it is insignificant; James McCloud escaped my grasp one day. I had hesitated mutating him too early because he was one of the very few amongst the test subjects that showed an impressive resistance to telepathic energy and I didn't want it to affect the results. Once I finally was sure of the process, I began to concentrate energy within him as with every other subject when he suddenly vanished from my sight, it appears he somehow used the energy to teleport right out of my grasp. To where, I have no idea, but his escape didn't herald a special forces team landing on the station so I assumed he landed in the middle of cold vacuum and ended his miserable life. No matter, as long as my secret hasn't been revealed, my research continues full steam ahead; although it will be difficult to find another subject so promising again._

The shock of the possibility of his fathers survival didn't even let Fox notice that most of the group had gathered behind him. He almost jumped when Wolf grunted at him. "No surprises so far, skip ahead for a while, see if you can't find anything more present day."

Fox obliged him, looking down for the latest logs. One was dated for only two weeks ago. He opened it quickly.

_August 1st, Dr. Andross' personal log._

_This is all proving far too easy this time. My plans have fallen into place perfectly. Both sides of the conflict are under my control, and the Telepathic Conduit is nearly complete. I haven't wrote about this particular invention yet, so I felt it was about time to track this amazing accomplishment in my log._

Bingo, it was exactly what they were all looking for; the reason behind his madness.

_I am getting along in the years now, I turned 68 years old two days ago, but I am still as sharp as ever. It had taken me decades to decode the reason for the destruction of Venom and why the Cerinians had temples there… The planets core has always teemed with telepathic energy, and now I know why._

_It is not the planet itself that the energy is being released from… With my new pet failure of a grandson's help, I could finally get a more detailed look at those caverns where I was defeated the first time by that damn Fox McCloud… There was ample evidence of a subspace rift from which all of the energy flowed. This rip in subspace was perfectly formed, an intentional rip, that appeared to be created through the use of very powerful sources of telepathy; this is not only a rip through space, but it is a rip through time._

_Venom is Cerinia. The blue furred bastards have been hiding under my nose this entire time, their power locked to me as I have cowered in this asteroid living off of replicated rations for over thirty years. Whatever deadly conflict they were engaged in, they could only avoid destruction by hiding their cowardly selves in a telepathically created reality within the portal, where they sealed as much of the planets energy as they could._

_Thus, I have been working on the Telepathic Conduit; this is a portal opening device that will allow a person and cargo to travel as a telepathic signal through this rift and enter Cerinia; where I will use the amplifier to drain it of every last drop of power. The final ingredient is easily the most important; I require a telepath to initiate the process, willing or otherwise._

So the secret was finally out. Dawn and Krystal both looked shocked beyond belief. Both of them were under the impression that Cerinia had been destroyed, but it was right in front of them all along.

Venom is the ruined husk of Cerinia.

_August 10th, Dr. Andross' personal log._

_God damn that accursed Scarlet Hand! Ever since I tried to kill them they have been nothing but a nuisance. I am on the verge of being discovered by them, and the conduit device is only days away from completion! The tool I require to gain access to ultimate power, covered up for so long under this raging war, is nearly complete- but my enemies are so close to finding me and my life's work!_

_Their actions are becoming more audacious, they are becoming easier to track by Corneria's intelligence network; they have something planned. I believe that the mongrel Wolf may have finally realized that that whore mother of Fox McCloud passed down the only hole in my otherwise perfect net of lies. If he moves to confront McCloud a minute too early, my work will be undone._

_I have delayed them as much as I could, I tried to make that fool Hare get them aboard the Indignation where Wolf would never be able to reach them but McCloud is far too hesitant. My incredible luck is beginning to run out, and I can feel the restraints of fate pushing to shatter everything I have worked to achieve over these past thirty years. _

_If I can get it done in time, if we can get the conduit to the wormhole before I am discovered… I will have my final victory. I will have the power to move planets, and the Lylat System will become my empire until the end of time. I will become immortal beyond imagining. By perverting the massive power of Cerinia and turning the armies of both Corneria and Venom to my will I will have an army of mutant killers at my command and nothing to get in my way. This time, I will have McCloud and O'Donnells heads on SPIKES, and I will make them watch as I butcher every one of their loved ones before the end. _

Fox gritted his teeth. The fact that Andross wasn't there could only mean one thing; he had completed his project just barely in time. There was one final entry, titled "End log"; Fox opened it without hesitation.

_Dear McCloud:_

_You are too late. The galaxy belongs to me. If you are reading this, then I am on Venom where we first met with the key to unlimited power. You have mere hours until I crack Cerinia open like an egg and drain every inch of its power to my own, and I will crush you all like the insignificant grapes you are. You will die in vain, just as your father did before you, and I shall have my victory. I already have it; all you need to do now is watch I burn everything you fought to protect._

_Prepare to die, Fox!_

**(I don't like it at all, but after 3 read-thrus it was as close as I could come to making this extreme overdose of epicness a little easier to swallow. I would REALLY appreciate comments on this, especially the negative ones!! Chapter 17 on it's merry way; it will be much better I promise!))**


	18. Chapter 17: Liberation

**Chapter 17: Liberation**

**Border of Meteo**

**Skye and Janice's Room**

**August 13th 5:25 PM Lylat Standard Time**

The two felines lay together on their bed side by side, Janice leaning into Skye who embraced her protectively. She was purring smoothly, but he felt no such comfort. He was still mulling over the details of everything they learned from Andross' journal.

"Janice…" he said, worried.

"Do we really need to worry about this now?" she grumbled, her purr quieting.

"If he really is that close to firing off whatever he has built under Venom's surface, we should be concentrating on how to stall the Cornerian fleet as much as possible."

"Well, we can't do anything until Wolf and Fox stop fighting over a course of action…"

Skye let his head go limp, his eyes gazing into the back of his lovers head. "I don't see how they can argue so much, you would think they would drop their childish rivalry in the face of certain extinction."

"It's typical. Fox wants to pull an aggressive revenge approach and race to Venom and take out Andross, and Wolf wants to hit the Cornerian fleet at Macbeth and try to steal the Indignation for the job."

"Both suicidal. Can you think of which one you prefer?"

"Nope…"

"Neither can I."

They paused, Janice's purring picking up again, until Skye broke the quiet once more. "I can't help but wondering if Andross' theories are simply insane and incorrect. How did neither Dawn or Krystal know about Cerinia being Venom?"

"Another mystery for another time, Skye, now shut up and hold me."

**Slippy and Amanda's room**

Slippy, still in his flight jacket, sat on a stool beside their bed where Amanda lay back, her right hand resting on her rounded stomach, which now could no longer be contained in her T-Shirt. Hers was a look of contentment, Slippy in a much more worried state.

"Amanda, we need to get you off this ship."

"Not without you Slippy, I would rather be up in the front lines than sitting at home worried about you."

"I'll come with you, then! We need to get you somewhere safe; Dads orbital research station at least!"

"What makes you think the defenseless Toad Enterprises Research and Development Station is any safer than the most famous warship in the system?" She drew out the name of the station in mocking.

He covered his face with his palm. "If Fox's plan gets put up like he says it will, we're gonna be rushing into Venom full on against a lot more guys than any time before… We- I can't risk it."

"If I die, let it be with you."

Slippy finally grew angry. "Damnit, Amanda!" He stood up. "And what about our children? Are you ready to put their lives on the line so quickly out of lovesickness?"

She yelled back at him as loud as her weary voice box would allow. "And do you want them to grow up without a father?!"

He let all of the air in his lungs go as he sank back into his seat. "We need to go. As soon as we're clear of the belt." he said quietly.

"Fine, but only because I respect your wishes."

**Great Fox Galley**

The main table in the cafeteria was busy. On one side were a angry looking collection of members of Star Fox; Fox, Krystal, Falco and Katt. An equally enraged group of Scarlet Hand members sat across them; Wolf, Dawn, Bryce and Panther.

Wolf growled at Fox. "I don't care how good you think you are, pup, you getting through Area 6 back in the first war was pure luck; and this time they have three times the troops. Even between our two teams that's a suicide trip."

"It's certainly a better alternative than killing innocent Cornerian troops!" Krystal rebuked at him.

Fox added. "You also need to stop calling me "pup", I'm still the best damn pilot in the system, and I'm thirty five years old for the creator's sake."

This put a grin on Panthers face, who leaned back with a chuckle. Wolf however kept his steely gaze. "I have twenty years of experience on you, Fox, and I know suicide when I see it. Even if we succeed it won't be without losing half our damn team."

Katt spoke up. "Equally suicide to attack the Indignation, if not more. Especially with the orbital defense cannons online on the-."

She was interrupted by a grumpy Panther. "You're assuming you have already been marked as hostile by the Cornerians. You could get all the way to the bridge of that ship without firing a shot."

"And you're assuming that while under Andross' control we're going to have free reign of the ship; our intentions will be far too obvious."

"Wait…" Fox stopped them. "Not if we go there with the impression that we're going to accept his offer to join the military."

"See?" Wolf growled again. "It's a good plan when you stop and think about it."

The walls squawked at them. "MASSIVE WARP SIGNATURE ENTERING THE EDGE OF THE ASTEROID BELT ON AN INTERCEPT COURSE WITH US. IFF CONFIRMED AS THE CNJ INDIGNATION. THEY ARE HAILING US."

They all looked at each other with bewilderment, Wolf with a sinister grin. "That cocky bastard just delivered the whole war to us."

Fox hit his headset. "Everyone, get to your fighters ASAP and prep for combat, the Indignation just dropped in." He looked to the others. "I'll take it on the bridge."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Fox rushed in to a bridge that was unoccupied all but for Rob, who was waddling across the bridge busily doing god knows what. Fox leaped into his captains chair, and turned to nod at his robotic companion. The image of Peppy snapped onto the view screen, who looked unusually distressed.

"Fox, what are you doing out here in Meteo? You were to report straight back to me from Kew. And what the hell is Star Wolf doing here with you?"

"It's a long story, but I need to know when the final push for Venom is scheduled first."

"Fox, that's classified."

He grew angry quickly. "Classified? Don't bull shit me Peppy, you want me to take part in that fight but you won't tell me when it is?"

Peppy growled. "You need to explain to me your presence here with Star Wolf first."

Fox turned to Rob, and pumped his fist back towards himself. This was a signal that only those two shared… It meant prepare for combat. He wasn't facing the godfather he knew; this was a puppet of his arch nemesis. He wouldn't kill the old man, because he couldn't- but he could take over his ship and lock him up until the mess was over. "Sorry old man, I can't do that. I know what's going on now, and what I need to do; unfortunately for you, Peppy, the top priority on that list is stopping you from leading the Cornerian fleet to Venom… At least not before I've gone in and put down Andross for good."

Peppy's expression turned dark, a sneering anger that Fox had only seen him show to his true enemies. It almost made him tear up that he was receiving this from his old mentor, but he constantly reminded himself that it wasn't Peppy in control. "So after everything that's happened you're going to betray me?"

"This isn't betrayal… its liberation."

He got up from his seat, nodding to ROB who shut down the screen. "Take cover in the belt, neither the Great Fox or the Executor would stand a chance against that thing… We're going to punch a hole in that thing's turret defenses with the Arwings so that Blackhook and some of the Scarlet Hand can get aboard and stop Peppy." He jumped over the back of his seat and made a dash for the hangar.

He touched a paw to the headset on his ear as he rushed into the elevator. "Everyone, tea party is over, they're going to fire on us. Wolf, you should tell the Executor to take cover. We're going to knock out a hole in it's defense so we can get some of us aboard to get to the bridge, hopefully we can get some help from Drake and Victoria." The elevator began to descend.

Wolf answered him. "Victoria is on that thing too? When did someone plan on telling me this?"

Janice clarified. "Andross separated her mind from her body and turned her into the AI for that thing, she was the reason Skye was able to take that thing down over Macbeth."

"Alright then." the elder grumbled. "So much for my plan of just blowing that thing away. You call the shots, Fox… I know this one's personal for you."

The elevator opened for him again, and some of the fighters had already launched, but the hangar was still pretty full. Krystal, Falco, Panther, Bryce and Fay were already out in Wolfens and Arwings respectively. Blackhook was suiting up at their dropship, Sabre sending Fox a nod as the vulpine jogged to his own Arwing. As he hopped up into his cockpit, Janice also launched in the Ranger.

"Good luck, everyone, don't do anything crazy, lets make this quick and clean. Don't forget that everyone on that ship is innocent… but if they shoot first, we don't have a choice."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

As the rest of the fighters fired out of the Great Fox's hangar bay, the first volleys were fired. The Indignation took the first shots at the two carriers, two beams missing the Executor and obliterating an asteroid. The Great Fox took a direct hit, but the shields took the beam like a champ; it seemed that Victoria must have deliberately lowered the power of the beams. Fox guessed that they didn't have long before the technicians on the Indignation realized that she was interfering.

The impressive fighter force formed up in two V formations. The Arwings of Fox, Falco, Slippy, Krystal, Skye and Janice making up the first, and the Wolfens of Wolf, Panther, Bryce, Fay, Vince and Dawn making the other. Fox spoke with confidence over the squadron wide channel. "The turrets are the weakest near the stern of that beast, lets blast it up to give the dropship room to get in. We don't want to cause too much damage to this ship, because I plan on using it for our attack on Venom."

Vince grumbled at him. "I assume you have a decent plan on how our unit of fifteen is going to take over such a large ship?"

Skye answered him. "Same way I did, I assume. Victoria is still on that ship, if we can ensure her safety from the Cornerian programmers then there is no reason we cannot take complete control of the vessel."

"We're gonna have to make it up as we go because…" Falco noticed a huge wave of red blips appear from the different bays littering the hull of the juggernaut. "we have company… A lot of company."

A dizzying number of Cornerian fighters were closing on them from all angles of the juggernaut as the two wings of Star Wolf and Star Fox plunged to the target area at the stern of the ship. They broke formation the moment the vessels close range turrets opened up on them, releasing a shower of destructive energy. Before Fox could make a decision on how to handle the newcomers in the engagement, he received a request to open up a private channel.

The sender of the invitation was labeled as "Husky - 1", who he knew to be Bill Grey.

He hastily accepted, and his old friend spoke first. "Fox, I don't know what's going on, but I can't let you shoot at a Cornerian Vessel. You know I have to try and stop you."

"Bill, I can explain everything later but for now you need to help me, you won't believe me now but I have indisputable proof that the General is being controlled by the enemy. The plan to attack Venom is just one big trap, and we're going to stop it."

"You're right, I don't believe you. I don't know what's happened to you but-"

Fox interrupted him. "Damnit, Bill! We've known each other since we were kids, do you really think I would lie to you like this? Do you really think I would team up with Star Wolf and willingly shoot at Peppy for no reason?!"

"And what fucking hope do you think you have, Fox?! How do you plan on taking on both navies on your own? Even YOU aren't that good." The end of that sentence trailed off.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Bill sat in his cockpit, uneasy about his brackets as they tried to slip over his old friend. He flipped his communicator off for a moment. "What am I doing?"

_"Kill him. That is an order, Commander."_

It wasn't his communicator that told him that, it was a voice inside his head. The voice of the general he knew to trust; the legendary Peppy Hare.

"Hare wouldn't tell me to shoot Fox… Never."

He snapped back into focus; everything was clear. He knew what had to be done, and flipped his communicator back on, switching to the Cornerian fighter group frequency.

"Boys, think about who you're about to shoot at. This is the hero that's saved every one of your lives, and the lives of your families, a dozen times over. He has reason to believe that the General ain't himself; and so do I. Who are you going to believe… The military command, or Fox McCloud?"

Nothing but silence in response. "I'm switching my IFF status to their side; and if you're with me… if you're with McCloud… you'll do the same. Husky one out."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Fox, you better be right about this. I've ordered my men to take your side and mark the ones that refuse as enemies. I am putting a lot of trust in you here, so don't let me down."

"Thanks, Bill. I owe you one." He closed the channel, and switched to squadron frequency. "Guys, a lot of the Cornerian fighters are about to change to green IFF status, they're joining our cause. Concentrate on those turrets but give our boys backup at every opportunity… We're still outnumbered by five to one."

Just as he said that, all of Bill's squadron and several other squadrons faded to green rather than the angry red, and they started to circle the other squadrons… They hesitated to fire, but a couple of trigger happy pilots started the madness. The turrets also began to quiet down to avoid hitting friendlies, and the former allied Cornerian pilots began to dogfight fiercely.

The squadron chat he had just spoke into was rather busy. While turrets were regularly being wiped out, there were a few cries for help and he saw a Wolfen or an Arwing once in a while take a scrape as his mind zoned back into the engagement. He boosted to the side of the vessel, plunging through it's shields with a barrel roll, and wasted one of the heavy flak guns he saw. It erupted in flame as he passed.

Two of the Cornerian fighters got cocky and pulled behind Slippy, one of which spoke on a public channel. "You were heroes once, but now you're traitors! Di-" his sentence was interrupted by Falco turning his fighter to slag. The other one broke off out of fear but couldn't escape the vengeful bird.

"Thanks Falco!"

"Don't mention it, I-" suddenly his signal fizzed out, and his shields blared as a heavy laser blast scraped his fighter. Slippy saw the fighter continue to maneuver but Falco's comm must have been damaged, because his signature was suddenly dropped off the squadron list.

Katt pulled in behind him, careful to dodge fire from the same turret that had nearly fried him. "Do a starboard side barrel roll if you can hear me and you're okay, hon."

The Sky Claw spun rapidly to the right, and her fears were alleviated. Across both of their views, she saw a Wolfen being chased by three fighters, with the Assassin piloted by Skye closely following them.

Dawn swore as lasers punched her rear shields at the same time she was forced to dodge a turbo laser shot. "I could use a hand here, Skye!"

"I got them, just relax." in truth they were extremely slippery, they must have been one of Corneria's elite squadrons. Locks came and went in milliseconds. After a furious few seconds of trying to target them he just rolled his eyes and let loose an angry spray, which Dawn was forced to get out of the way of as the three fighters were vapourized.

"Thanks." he said, breaking off from behind her. He let his guard down for that one moment, or so he thought- because suddenly a blast of alarms went off in his cockpit and he felt a terrible shudder, his fighter was spinning out of control. "Fuck it all! I'm hit!"

He managed to get control again but many of his systems were reading offline. "I lost weapons, atmospheric maneuvering thrusters, G-diffuser, and I'm running on emergency life support. I can't fight anymore."

Fox shook his head. "Get out of there, Skye, there's nothing more you can do out here. Go group up with the drop ship, you'll go with Blackhook."

"Got it, sorry."

Janice caught up to him as an ambitious fighter formed up behind him to try to take the injured Arwing down. A quickly charged laser bomb eradicated the rogue. "I skipped a beat there, don't do that to me."

"Yeah." he said it almost a whisper. "Thanks, Janice."

"You're welcome, see you after this is over. I love you."

"I love you too." She broke off back into the fur ball, taking down two more rogue fighters that were going to try to chase her lover back to the Great Fox with a furious spray of twin laser fire.

There was one more beam turret left on that corner of the ship, and Bryce was headed straight for it. "I got the bugger." he grinned, and had his finger on the trigger. Wolf watched from behind him to keep fighters off his back as he made the run, and noticed the beam turret beginning to power up.

"Shit! Bryce! Pull up, that thing is going to fry you!"

"I can get it, two more seconds!"

"You don't have two, pull up!"

Wolf was right, the beam cannon lit up space like a flashlight at the bottom of a dark chasm. Wolf pulled up in time, but Bryce and several of the Cornerian fighters winked off his radar without incident. He looped back towards the beam turret, pumping it full of lasers while looking around for any sign of the Wolfen.

All he saw was dust where his team mate once was. "Fuck!!! We lost Bryce!"

Fox shook his head solemnly, letting Wolf rage on his own while he took action; the turrets were now clear. "Great Fox, move in on the port-side lower stern of the Indignation and get ready to transfer Blackhook and Skye.

"AFFIRMATIVE. MOVING INTO POSITION."

"Halsey!" Wolf groaned. "Support the Great Fox, cover her fat ass until she's in position!"

"Yes, Lord O'Donnell. We are moving into position to support the Great Fox."

The two cruisers soaked up some shots from the lighter long range turrets, but they weren't enough to cause any significant damage. They easily kept up with the slow turning pace of the juggernaut as it turned to face the ships emerging from the asteroid belt. Skye disappeared into the Great Fox's hold.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Bill growled. "Fox, what are you trying to accomplish?"

"You're just going to have to trust me a bit longer, Bill, I don't have the time to explain everything now."

"Don't you owe me more than that?" he said, as he reluctantly burned down one of his former comrades that had turned to face him.

"As soon as this is over."

Fox growled as Peppy appeared on his communications console screen. "You can't win this one, Fox, you've already lost. Give up and I'll consider letting you live."

He shook his head, he knew it was Andross' words, but it hurt him nonetheless coming from Peppy's voice. "I'll free you soon, old man."

The old hares expression turned to one of desperation. "Fox… I…" but it quickly turned dark again. "We'll see about that." Suddenly the hare dropped out of view as though he fainted, and Fox immediately understood that he was struck when the lynx he knew as Drake Tuttle took the view screen. "McCloud, I've taken the bridge and Victoria is free. When I saw the rest of the Hand down there with you I knew what was going on. Get up here quick, cause I can't hold them off for long." his face winked out.

"Did everyone else get that message?" Fox said over squadron frequency.

"What message?" asked Slippy.

"Drake took over the bridge of the Indignation, we need to send in Blackhook now, the turrets should be down." Before he even finished that sentence, the Indignation stopped firing altogether. "Okay, everyone form up on the carriers, anyone who wants to go in with Blackhook and Skye get ready."

Janice answered. "I'll go."

As did Fay. "Me too."

"No one else?" He was met with silence. He noticed that the numbers were even 1:1 now between his fighters and the Cornerians under the influence of Andross. He switched his comm.'s to open frequency. "This is Captain Fox McCloud of Star Fox demanding that all Cornerian fighters surrender immediately or be destroyed. Change your IFF status to friendly on squadron frequency Beta-Delta-Four if you comply."

All of them complied immediately, and stopped dog fighting with the rebels under Bill's command. Not a single one stood against him. The dropship holding Blackhook and Skye, as well as Janice and Fay's fighters flew into the closest docking bay.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Looking out of the cockpit of the dropship Skye saw they were clearly surrounded by heavily armed marines as they touched down. The Arwing and the Wolfen touched down to either side of them, all three ships shields up to make them completely invulnerable until they exited.

On the dropship's dashboard, a small pink avatar of a tiger with a neat ponytail appeared. "Good to see you again, Skye! It's good to hear you finally know what's going on."

"I only wish I knew earlier, Victoria. Could you give us a hand down here?"

"Sure thing, brining the hanger 7 defense turrets online. Marking Cornerian marines as enemies."

She had said it very dry and business like, but the actual carrying out of her order was very much the opposite. 4 repeating laser turrets that looked like small chain guns appeared from ports it the roof, and they began to spray the waiting marines. Many were gunned down immediately but some managed to duck out of the way behind crates, but were quickly perforated as the crates were superheated and pierced. From the sealed environment of the drop ship he couldn't hear the commotion, but he could imagine the screams and firing from where he was. Sabre came up to the cockpit. "Are we ready to… What the fuck?"

Skye looked back to his companion and opened the rear doors of the dropship. "Yes, we are quite ready to move out. Load up."

The four members of Blackhook were in helmetless power armor, which looked like thick plate connected by small tubes and cords between sections of the suit. All four had matching headsets which looked like standard radios but with a screen extending off the ear. Skye hadn't the time to get a similar suit, he was just wearing his black pilot's jumpsuit, and he grabbed his sniper rifle from the side of the bay as he exited. The four officers followed behind him.

"Warm welcome!" Miyu joked. "Here I thought this was going to be a big long drawn out fight to the bridge."

Janice and Fay jogged to meet them, and Skye could taste the tension between Fay and Blackhook as they joined up, heading for the door. Victoria's avatar appeared beside them in a more relative size in comparison to them this time, walking beside them leisurely. "Drake wasn't joking when we said we don't have much time, it won't be too much longer until the turrets defending the bridge doors are disabled and they break in."

Skye nodded. "I know the way." He picked up his pace and the others followed briskly.

"Don't forget, there's still a lot of marines out there, and my turret coverage in the main passages is limited."

Sabre took the initiative. "Stack up, set for breach." His power armor slammed against the wall beside the door, Ian took up position behind him, with Jack and Miyu at the other side of the door. Janice and Skye moved at the back of each stack.

Victoria's avatar sizzled out of view as the door slid open. The massive skeletal hallway throughout the ship greeted them with a rain of blaster fire, and the Blackhook members stayed put until they all stopped firing. They could hear clips being dropped to the ground, and blasters venting heat to recharge. Taking their opportunity, Sabre and Jack burst through first dropping small disks - portable shield cover emitters - to the deck, which ignited as Saber roared. "OPEN FIRE!"

The other two members of Blackhook slid in behind them, with Skye and Janice behind them, and they all opened fire. The marines shot back, most of which without cover and quickly cut down. Shots bounced off the blue shields Sabre and Jack had dropped, and some were absorbed by the thick shielding of the power armor. Pulses of every different colour being quickly exchanged, along with the precise sniper fire from Skye and Ian.

It couldn't have been 6 seconds before the hall was quiet again, the last corpses dropping to the deck on either side of the huge passage.

They stood up, taking a quick look around the hallway as they rushed onto one of the transport platforms. Miyu naturally began setting up more shield emitters. Jack shook his head at the carnage. "I thought I would feel guilty shooting at Cornerians, but it's just like shooting at the Venomians… I don't even feel wrong about it."

"Never feels wrong when you do it for a cause you know is good." Skye said. "We're trying to save the system, they're trying to stop us. That's all that matters."

"Heads up!" Sabre shouted. "More along the passage!" The expansive tube-like hallway was indeed lined with balconies, and marines began to shoot their attention at the heavily laden transport pad that was heading to the bridge of the ship. They started to open fire, and the team sprayed back, unable to make sure shots at the rate they were moving. The portable shields flickered in protest, but held well.

The pad began to slow as they approached the bridge, the doors of which were open. A couple of marines were standing guard outside of it, and the team could see from there that there were more inside. The guarding marines were cut down before they could even raise their weapons.

"Stick them up, only fire if necessary." Skye said flatly.

"I hear that, we've killed enough Cornerians today." Sabre groaned.

The six rushed off the pad through the bridge doors, there were eight marines inside surrounding Drake who was holding up a blaster to the head of an unconscious Peppy Hare sitting in his captains chair. There was a squirrel in a lab coat tampering with one of the computers to the side while this was going on.

Drake sneered. "I swear to god, Marines, put your guns down or I'm going to put a smoking hole in the General's head. That's an order."

One of them sneered back. "You became rogue the second you fired a shot, we don't take orders from you. If you want to walk out of this alive, put your blaster down." One of the marines was lining up for a shot.

The team, who was now right behind the marines unnoticed through the haze of tension in the room, raised their weapons at the marines. Sabre growled. "Put your guns down, Marines, if not an order from him, an order from me."

Some turned around slowly and saw they now had 6 others pointing guns at them, they slowly surrendered, putting their guns on the ground. "Hands behind your head…" Sabre continued. "Do it, now." They complied without argument.

Skye pulled out his silenced pistol and pointed it at the techie on the computer, who also had his hands up. "Out of the chair, back up." The frightened scientist moved away from the console in a hurry. Skye took a seat and began to undo anything the squirrel did to Victoria; he was gratified to learn he didn't do much, she just had her control of the vessel temporarily cut off. He restored it, and her avatar appeared in the middle of the room. "Thanks."

Drake shook his head as the marines were getting on their knees. "What don't you people get about "not much time?" what did you do, take a nap half way here?"

"Thought about it." Skye grinned, stepping forward.

The lynx recognized his former captain instantly. "God damn, Captain. Victoria told me you were alive but I never believed it. Do you have your memories back?"

Janice stepped beside Skye. "No, Andross made his own set for the restore function on the implant as expected. We've just been briefing him as we go. You should have seen his face when I showed him the rings…" She giggled.

Victoria interjected their reunion. "Guys, I found out why most of the Cornerians were so hostile towards us… Peppy has some sort of-"

Skye stopped her. "We know about Peppy, but what about the others? I doubt they would so happily shoot at us, especially Fox, without some outside push."

"I was getting to that, there's some kind of device near the core of the ship. It's emitting some kind of energy signature I've never seen before. Do any of you know anything about it?"

Skye, Janice and Sabre all looked towards each other. "An amplifier? Here?" Skye said.

"The Cornerians didn't know what it did but decided to leave it alone, I have a hunch that it's causing all of this strange activity."

Skye put a paw to his headset. "Fox, Skye here. We have control of the bridge, all VIP's are safe. We've also discovered that there is a type of amplifier built into the Indignation, somewhere near the-" he stopped, looking over to one of the corpses of the officers Drake had killed.

There was something on the back of his neck; a little black disk-like device.

"core…" he finished, kneeling down to the goats neck and examining the object. He looked up to Janice. "Check the back of Hare's neck."

She did what she was told, and she found a similar device. "Some kind of black disk."

Drake took a peek at the objects on both bodies, dead and unconscious alike. "Fifty bucks says those are miniature amplifiers." The marines they were holding hostage look completely bewildered. Skye stood up and turned around one of them, but they were lacking them. They were only following orders.

"The officers all have miniature amplifiers on them, probably linked to the one on the core."

Fox crackled in on their radios. "An amplifier on the core? We have to burn that thing down as soon as possible."

"Wait!" Skye yelled. "What about what happened to me? Severing the connection with the amplifier could cause these people to be shocked to death, and we need Peppy alive to use his authority and delay the invasion!"

"Too bad so sad!" Wolf sounded off. "We need this ship more than we need him, that's a risk we have to take!"

Fox barked at him. "There will be no more Cornerian deaths today, not on my watch… Especially not my godfather. Any ideas, Skye?"

He pulled aside the dead corpse he was examining, and cracked the disk open with his pocket knife. He spotted the wireless emitter, and ripped it out.

It didn't give off a charge.

"I just checked them, they don't electrocute the victim when it's cut. Victoria, can you send targeting coordinates to the Arwings to surgically strike the amplifier on the core?"

"It's too close, you could blow the entire ship!"

"We can't leave it there."

Fox spoke up. "That's a risk were going to have to take. Send me the targeting data."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, but only because of your reputation. We're counting on you. Don't miss."

"Never have, never will."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

He guided his fighter into one of the many gaps in the ships hull that lead to the sprawling superstructure of the juggernaut. It was a tight fit, but he didn't need to slow down too much as most of the tubular corridors running through the ship were straight as an arrow; excepting where he had to slam the breaks to turn, following the targeting blip on his fighters HUD as his only directions.

"I'm almost there. How big is this thing?"

Victoria answered him. "About five meters in diameter, you're going to have to shoot it off the side of the core rather than fire on it straight on, or you will destabilize the reactor and kill us all."

"Noted" he grumbled uneasily. The Arwing II plunged into the massive reactor chamber at high speeds. He began to circle around the outside of the expanse, watching the targeting blip circle around his hud on the left side of his cockpit as he tried to get an eye on what he was aiming for. The reactor was made up of a bulbous half-sphere on the roof, and one on the ground, connected by a tube that looked like a hundred gigawatts of energy were being shoved through it per second. He tightened his circle around the core, trying to get a better view of his target.

On his closest pass he finally spotted it: it looked like a large, unassuming black box with a simple dish sticking out of it. It was crude, but apparently devilishly effective. He widened his loop, getting ready to line up the shot. "Gonna fire. Wish me luck."

"Don't miss." Victoria reiterated.

He took two more passes, making sure he had his targeting reticule lined up and that he would have his timing right. On the third pass, he took a deep breath and fired as soon as his reticule flashed red.

He saw something flash behind him, but not an earth quaking explosion which deemed well. If he missed, he didn't destabilize the core. Good news.

Victoria buzzed in. "Nice shot, Fox, amplifiers offline."

He sighed with relief, speaking with faked confidence. "Did you ever have a doubt?"

"Yes."

"Thanks."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Skye heard a groan from the grey heap on the floor that was General Peppy in his white admirals uniform. "Fox, the General is awake." Him and Janice both rushed to his side, rolling the old man over. Sabre, Fay, Jack and Ian shuffled over to get a view of the old man, keeping their weapons trained on the captive marines.

His breathing was weak, but Skye couldn't see any major injuries after a quick check. The hare shook his head, but quickly stopped, clutching his head. "I have a hell of a headache… Where am I?"

"You're on the bridge of the Indignation, General, do you remember anything?"

"A… Snow leopard? Who are you? What am I doing here? What's the Indignation?"

Skye shook his head, thumbing his comm on again. "Looks like he has no memory of the entire war. He has no clue what's going on."

"War? Wait… Fichina… I remember."

Janice took over. "What's the most recent thing you can remember, General?"

I… I was in my office… Senator Deckard came to see me, he wanted to know my opinion on the Venomians starting a navy, and I denounced the notion… I… I think he put something on my neck." Janice helped him sit up. "My head hurts…"

"It's alright, General, we're going to get you to the infirmary: but first I need you to help us. Your mind was under the control of the Venomians for the last month or so, and we're here with Fox to get you back. We need you to order your men to stand down."

"What..? Let me talk to Fox.."

Janice took off her headset and gave it to the hare, who thumbed it on. "Fox?"

"Peppy, it's good to hear your normal voice again."

"What happened? What is this ship?"

"It's a long story old man, I just need you to cooperate with my friends there until we can explain the whole story. I'm on my way there now."

"Alright, I trust you. Thanks Fox."

Fox sighed, not looking forward to explaining everything that happened to the old man. "Don't mention it."

**=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=**

**Three Hours Later**

The Juggernaught dwarfed the two cruisers to its left and right as the three vessels pushed through the edge of the asteroid field. The Indignation was now under the control of Star Fox and the Scarlet Hand, and they were going to set a course for Venom the moment they were all ready.

Fox and his godfather Peppy sat together aboard the bridge of the Great Fox, where they opted to talk because of the low privacy of the Indignation. The others were sorting out the vessel, dealing with the dead and briefing the crew on everything that happened and what they were to do. They each had a mug of hot coffee, and sat next to each other on the officers seats.

"I still can't believe it, Fox. I hadn't a clue all of this time I was his puppet. To think there were terrible crimes I have committed and cannot even remember…"

"As far as we're concerned old man, that was all Andross. You can't be blamed for any of this."

Peppy sighed, wanting to take the blame for his actions but knowing that Fox was right. He took a long draught of his coffee before continuing. "I think its almost time for me to retire. For good, this time."

"One more battle together. We'll avenge my dad for real, this time. And all the people that Andross has killed."

"Alright. For James." He took another, shorter sip. "Let' talk tactics. Do you have a plan?"

"I figured the good ol' Arwing drill down the throat would suffice like it always does."

"That's what I figured…" The older hare chuckled. "Although, of everything you told me, I still can't believe you're cooperating with Star Wolf."

"That's what it's come down to. If they hadn't come to us when they did, we would have happily marched into Venom and got all of us killed… or worse. I owe them now." He took a long draught of his own.

"So, what do we do now? Rush in first thing in the morning?"

"There's a couple things I need to wrap up, first."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**8:52 PM Lylat Standard Time**

Fox was heading to his own room, riding up the elevator to the officer quarters level where he would talk to Krystal. He had promised her he would never ask her to stay behind again but Andross' log rung in his mind.

"_The final ingredient is easily the most important; I require a telepath to initiate the process, willing or otherwise."_

Neither Dawn nor Krystal could come along; it would be the doom of them all. He knew that Andross was counting on her stubbornly coming along; and he would use her to his ends.

The first thing he was greeted by in the top deck upon the elevators arrival was Slippy and Amanda, both of which went wide-eyed upon seeing him. For some reason, both of their eyes sunk in shame.

"Is there something wrong, you two?"

Slippy looked up at him, but not Amanda. "Fox… we can't stay for the final push."

There was a long pause. Fox looked at Amanda, who he knew now to be looking at the ground out of shame. He understood him perfectly. "Alright. I understand."

"…You do?"

"I would do the same if it were Krystal. It's not a risk we can take anymore. We can't bring a pregnant woman out into the thickest fighting in the system."

Slippy shook his head. "I'm sorry, Fox…"

"Don't apologize… good luck, you two." He swept past them without another word. He was only slightly annoyed about their predicament, because while he was down one pilot, he knew full well the situation that him and Amanda were in.

He only wondered whether he would have to make the same decision one day.

He didn't bother knocking or ringing before letting himself in; even if he caught her stark naked their relationship was at the point where she wouldn't care regardless. He was surprised to find her sitting on the bed doing little else than gazing out at the meteorites through the viewport that covered the far side of the room. She was in her Cerinian outfit; a look she always chose when she wanted to strike into his core. She only wore it to trigger nostalgia, now that she had developed a modesty that refused to let her wear it in public.

"You made a promise, Fox."

Her telepathy beat him to it. The door closed behind him, all he did in response was go to her and sit by her side. He didn't look at his side; he didn't want to see her expression.

"Tell me what your promise was, Fox."

She was obviously probing his mind, so he spoke through his thoughts.

"_I promised never to leave you behind again. No matter what the risk, we'd fight together until the bitter end."_

She replied in silence. "_Then why?"_

_"You know what Andross said. He wants to use you to open the conduit. You're the key he needs to spell all of our doom."_

_"Not on my watch, Fox… And not on yours."_

_"Is that truly a risk you want to take?"_

_"Tell me what your promise was, Fox."_

He nodded in understanding, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek before wrapping one of his arms around her waist.

_"Until the bitter end."_

_"I love you."_

_"I love you, too."_

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**CNJ Indignation**

**9:10 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**The Bridge**

Peppy stood in front of the seat he unknowingly occupied for the past two weeks, looking out the viewport. Drake Tuttle stood beside him, the two looked like proud Cornerian officers; but Peppy knew the others was false. He didn't much care; there was bigger things to worry about, like whether he could trust his men to follow him outside the jurisdiction of the Cornerian government into certain doom.

Sabre, now out of his power armor, approached the General from behind in rough combat fatigues. "General Hare, sir." He snapped to attention and gave a salute.

The General and his aide turned to face the captain. They both stiffly returned the gesture. "At ease, Captain Lionidis."

He dropped his salute, but his posture didn't falter. "The men could use a word, sir, more than half of them still doesn't know what's going on."

"You're right, and I had intended to. I just have no idea what to say."

"I don't blame you, sir, none of us who know the full story do. It's been a rough week for us all."

Peppy turned around again, looking to the viewport. "Commander, open a channel to the whole ship."

"Aye, sir. Channel open." Peppy cleared his throat.

"This is Supreme General Peppy Hare speaking. Some of you are aware of the situation, and some of you not. I think it has come time to share the entire story with every one of you; as I need the trust of every last one of you if we're going to pull off Fox McCloud's plan to end this war.

This started with an ambitious, mad scientist back in the first Lylat war eighteen years ago. This man, Dr. Eos Andross, tore up the centuries long peace for a reason that no one could decipher. He calculated, he attacked, and he struck us all. Even though us, and Fox McCloud stopped him three times now, he has returned again; his same old ambitions guiding billions into the maelstrom of chaos.

A lot of you may be skeptical; we all know the story, Fox killed him in Venom eighteen years ago. This is not true; he has returned twice since then, and only the top echelon of commanders knows this; both times Fox has put him back into the hell where he belongs. This time, his involvement was a surprise even to our hero.

This time, we know how he did it. Andross was never killed; this should have been obvious. All of this time he has simply remotely manipulated us all with technology thought lost millennia ago. Now we know where he is, what he has done, and what he plans to do. The end to this eighteen years of destruction and confusion has almost arrived. We are going to become the instrument of justice for all of Lylat: The final blow from the combined wills of our families and those we have sworn to protect, the final blow to silence the serpent once and for all time.

The coward hides on Venom, with the key to the end of all life in Lylat. His insane plotting has reached a cataclysmic climax that we have mere days to stop. Tomorrow, alongside the heroes of Star Fox, and the former villain terrors of Star Wolf, we will march straight into Venom airspace and cut down all that resist.

Back on Fichina, I made a promise. I made a promise not only to avenge those who died in her orbit defending against the first assaults of the Venom armada; but every death that the madman Andross has inflicted over his campaign of terror. The day of reckoning has come, ladies and gentlemen. The day I said would come. Tomorrow it's do or die.

I'm not going to lie to you. Three ships and their fighter complements, no matter how stunningly powerful or skilled they are, has much hope of defeating an entire planet on their own. We may very well be marching onwards to our own extinction; all we have left is hope… Hope, and hundreds of thousands of kilograms of firepower. Let's put them to good use. Get your rest, you'll need it.

General Hare out."

**(( I predict four chapters to go, that is at least before the sequel. I want to apologize for my slow response time, College is sucking up my time like a vacuum. I'm still here, and still working on this.**

**Even though the only two people even reviewing this now (and possibly the only ones reading it) are Guitardude and KibaKurokage, whatever _. Still want to finish it. Thanks you two for your continued support.))**


	19. Chapter 18: Four Hundred Gun Salute

**Chapter 18: Four-Hundred Gun Salute**

**Captains Quarters, Great Fox II**

**August 14th, 6:02 AM Lylat Standard Time**

Fox woke up on his own accord that morning; not only to avoid the pestilent wall-alarm, but simply because his own nervousness wouldn't let him sleep. His eyes cracked open to a dark room lit only by the stars outside the wide viewport of their room. He could barely see the outlines of the furniture. One outline stuck out in particular: the furry outline of his lover looking out at the stars. The edge of the asteroid belt Meteo was visible in the distance; both the Indignation and the Executor were not as their window didn't face them… but they knew they were there.

He sat up. "Can't sleep either?"

She spoke with nearly a whisper. "Do you think this will be the last time? Is he going to stay dead?"

The answer to his question was obvious. It was likely that no one else on the ship could get any sleep either. The answer to her question however was multitudes more unclear; but he felt confident that he would face the bastard truly this time around. He sat up and shifted beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist. "Even if it isn't, we'll always be ready. He will never win. Not while we're around."

He was surprised to see tears in her eyes when she faced him. "Why can't we just have a peaceful life? Does it have to be us every time Lylat is in danger?" she leaned into his chest, and he could barely hear her sob. His bare chest fur soaked up tears he could feel. "I don't know how you could have done this for so long… I would have broken down years ago."

"Just one last battle… Lylat needs us one more time. After that, we'll get out of this business for good. I promise."

She stopped sobbing, pulling her head from his chest and hugging him tightly. "Aren't you ever afraid?"

"To tell the truth?" he paused, his heartbeat quickening when the odds of failure dawned on him. "I'm scared shitless, Krystal… but you know what?" He paused waiting for her response, looking down at the leg he couldn't feel anymore solemnly.

"What?"

"That never stopped us before."

She giggled, gripping him tighter. "Let's all come out of this alive, okay?"

"Alright… but first…"

"Hmm?"

"Let's get some breakfast… We can't assault a planet on an empty stomach."

The wall, rather than waking him up, decided to interrupt them during their pre-battle love mongering. The beeping began, but at least this time Fox could react reasonably.

"What is it, ROB?"

"THE BULLFROG AND THE TADPOLE HAVE LEFT THE GREAT FOX AND HAVE SET A COURSE FOR CORNERIA."

"I understand."

Krystal looked at him, both bewildered and understanding. "They're leaving?"

"They're going to be parents soon… The front line is no place for them. They have to find a new home…"

She sighed. "I can only wish them luck."

Fox shook his head. "He's a great pilot; he's going to be missed in this fight." He stood up, making his way to the closet, grabbing his forest camo cargos and a matching green t-shirt before turning around to face Krystal again. "What are you gonna be wearing?"

"Just throw me my flight suit…" she groaned.

Her tight-fighting purple flight armor was hanging up neatly pressed. He pulled it off the rack and tossed it in her direction, not bothering to turn around. "I'm going to call Wolf, and have his boys come to the Indignation. We're going to have all senior officers and our pilots meet in the VIP conference room there and discuss details."

"Sound's like a plan." She tossed him his headset, which he caught without even looking. It became habit for her to communicate to him her intentions when doing something behind his back so he could react so deftly… half for efficiency, half for a reason to delve into his mind, as was becoming increasingly difficult to do.

Now fully dressed, he stepped in front of the dormant display screen across from their bed, Krystal shifting out of view to prevent her bare body being displayed to whoever answered his hail. "ROB, open a channel to the Executor."

The older white feline he knew to be the ships commanding officer answered him almost immediately. He was seated in his captain's chair, in comfortable dominion over his fellow officers… he probably hoped to press a similar dominion upon Fox, but the gesture bounced off him as simple arrogance. "Captain Halsey here, what do you want, McCloud?"

"Just want to pass along a message. At 11 AM all senior officers that are going to be involved in the assault are to meet aboard the Indignation at her main conference room. I'd like him and anyone he wants to bring along to attend."

"I'll make sure that he is notified… Halsey out." The screen blinked blank again.

"Friendly guy isn't he?" Krystal rebuked sarcastically.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Wolf's Quarters, SWS Executor**

Wolf awoke with the painful, familiar headache of a hangover. Bryce's death the previous night had shook him worse than he would ever admit, and he couldn't remember how much he drank. His head swimming through the pain, he checked his other extremities for feeling to make sure he didn't hurt himself in his stupor.

He didn't feel anything wrong with his other limbs, other than the fact the front half of them were warm. They were against something very warm indeed. His smell kicked in, and it was definitely the smell of fur that wasn't his own.

_"No way did I do what I think I did…" _Wolf thought to himself. He knew he liked Dawn, she was as rugged and ruthless as he was with a rack to match; everything he could appreciate in a team mate let alone a woman. However, he only needed to recall his last relationship to turn away from the thought of taking another girl on. His first girlfriend, Brianna Seraph, was a girl he met in the academy back on Corneria. She was burned down on their first mission out intercepting a convoy stolen by a pirate band.

How ironic that he would become one after freelancing in their wake on a quest for revenge for so long. Upon learning the tricks of the trade to allow him to better hunt pirates, he learned to like the job until he was finally pulled into the service of Andross when promises of a huge paycheck were waved in front of his blind muzzle.

Cranking his eyes open, his fears were realized. A naked Dawn was sleeping beside him comfortably, and was completely undisturbed as Wolf rolled his way off the bed. He gripped his head as it throbbed in protest to his movement, groaning loudly.

He turned back to his bed; Dawn was stirring, knocking an emptied bottle of whiskey onto the ground. Her eyes hesitated to crack open as well; he guessed she had almost as much to drink as he did. Wolf asked flatly, "What are you doing naked, and what are you doing being naked in my bed?"

She sat up groggily, half squinting at him. "Huh? Oh… Last night…"

He found his jeans at the other end of the room, bunched up in a ball. He got them on as hastily as his headache would allow. Her voice resonated in his ears like a shrill alarm, even though she was speaking normally. "You were drunk and depressed, and I was drunk and lonely. What more is there to tell?" She stretched her arms and yawned.

With his pants on, he crashed back onto the bed. "Whatever. What time is it?"

She looked to her wrist computer, which showed her the time on command. "Just after six AM."

"What the hell am I doing up this early?"

"We were going to prep for the assault today, remember?"

He got up again, practically limping to his personal bathroom. Inside the medicine cabinet was almost exclusively hangover cures; he grabbed a fistful of the bottles and started unscrewing caps. "I shouldn't have drunk so much… Fuck."

"You were entitled; we lost a good man yesterday."

"Were gonna lose another one if I go into a fight in this condition… I need pills." Saying this, he popped two of them down his throat at random, not even double checking if they were the right ones. He only kept painkillers and hangover cures in there anyway.

"Pass me some of those, big guy." He obliged, throwing one of the still sealed bottles in her direction. She stopped to read the label.

"How about ones that won't put me right back to sleep?"

He threw another bottle at her at random.

"That's better."

His head rapidly clearing up, he wandered back into the bedroom, catching his first sober glimpse at the naked lupine. His eyepiece didn't lie about her breast size, being the first two things he noticed. She looked back at him dumbly after swallowing a couple pills. "What, didn't have enough of them last night?"

He shook his head in defiance and headed over to his closet, pulling out a black flight jacket and putting it on messily. "I'm going down to the galley to get something to eat, then I'm gonna hit the gym. If you need me, I'll be there."

"That's the first time you've said something so considerate."

"It'll probably be the last, thanks for reminding me." He stopped, looking at the badge on the front of the particular vest he wore. It was the unit patch of the Scarlet Hand, with a gold border and black background, a blood red open palm in the center. He wondered why it felt so odd wearing it; he hadn't so much as looked at the vest in years.

_  
"Wait a second…" _her thoughts rang through his mind in a much more soothing manner than her voice did.

"What?" he spoke aloud.

_"Sit down, you aren't going to the gym while you're that tense."_

Despite everything in his mind telling him otherwise, he took a seat on the bed without even looking back. The still naked blue lupine shifted across the bed to him, and started giving him the same massage she would before each one of their telepathy-blocking training sessions. He leaned his head back as his muscles gave way to her masterful paws, tension draining out of him like the last vestiges of soap water into a sink drain after cleaning up from thanksgiving dinner.

Suddenly his walls started beeping at him, interrupting their session. He shouted at them. "What!?" Dawn gripped her head in pain, still not completely recovered from her headache. The image of Captain Halsey filled his TV screen.

Halsey did his best not to let his eyes drift to Dawn's breasts, but failed for a fleeting moment, being totally caught off guard. Wolf shook his weakness off. "My lord, I have a message from Fox McCloud."

"Yes, what is it?"

"He wants you to know you and anyone you want to bring along are to meet him aboard the Indignations conference room at 11 AM to discuss tactics."

"Fine, whatever… O'Donnell out."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**CNJ Indignation **

**11:05 AM**

**Senior Officers Conference Room**

Every major player on the good side of the war was in the room. A long, circular, extravagant table typical to the Venomian high command dominated the center of the room, where everyone was seated.

The members of Star Fox were at the "head" of the table; Fox, Krystal, Falco, Skye, Janice and Katt. The Scarlet Hand was there: Wolf, Dawn, Panther, Vince and the holographic Victoria occupying her own seat, Captain Halsey also attended. Blackhook squadron was there; Sabre, Jack, Ian, Miyu and Fay. Bill Grey and Drake Tuttle surrounded an empty seat, which Peppy Hare stood behind. The center of the table featured a holographic emitter that was displaying Venom, and an intimidating number of ships in her orbit.

"Now that everyone is here…" Peppy glared at Falco in particular, who was late as usual. "We can begin."

The map in the center of the room enlarged. "This, you all may have already guessed, is Venom. Her defense is made up of not one less ship than we expected. The only air sectors not guarded by a massive swarm of ships are guarded by devastating anti-capital ship ground turrets, which are simply not an option for an insertion point for anything but your fighters."

Skye was analyzing the defense carefully. "I see one weaker point."

"Our analysts saw this as well, the sector you have noticed…" the map zoomed in on the planet, displaying a number of ships in the sky, and a barren landscape below "happens to be the very same place where Fox defeated Andross eighteen years ago. The entrance to the core is there."

"A trap, obviously. Andross knows that it's our target. He must be waiting for us." Krystal pointed out.

Wolf shook his head. "The arrogant prick just probably wants us to see what he's doin down there."

Peppy continued. "Actually, Andross must not know about our Mana scanning technology that Fay installed on the Executor, because Halsey found something rather interesting that Andross definitely took quite a bit of effort to hide."

The old cat stood up. "Despite what we would have expected, the largest concentration of amplifier activity is not at the core where Andross is supposedly preparing the conduit: rather, it is in the Imperial Palace in Androsia, where we believe there is a mass amplifier dish hidden. I should note that it is the most heavily defended sector on the planet."

"That must be how he plans to mutate the population..." Katt breathed, bewildered. The mass scale of his twisted plans dawned on everyone in the room as if it were news all over again.

"This is what we believe as well." Peppy said. "We think Andross plans on luring all of us to where he is so he can try to kill us all with the power he acquires from the conduit, or at least distract us while he funnels his power through the amplifier in Androsia and mutates the population and the Cornerian fleet he was expecting. This makes the Palace a target just as important as Andross himself."

Fox pointed at the map. "So we need to split into two groups: One to assault the palace and find that damn device, the other to go after Andross himself."

"Correct." the old hare said. "All that's left to discuss now is details. Andross will already be taken care of, as the area around him is lightly defended and we can probably count on Star Fox to deal with him. The catch is… how we are going to disable the dish in the palace?"

Panther groaned. "The skies around the palace are jam packed with ships. Even the Indignation couldn't punch through that kind of defense, even with our escort." He was correct: there were thirty dreadnaughts and countless fighters in the skies and space above Androsia.

Skye pointed at a thinner area further away from the city, at least three hundred kilometers. "We don't have a chance for a direct assault, but we can get the Indignation into the atmosphere at that point and push to the city. The dreadnaughts in space wouldn't dare firing down towards the surface; we would only have to deal with three or four."

Bill shook his head. "We can't, that's one of the thickest anti-capital ship gun zones on

the surface. They would be expecting that approach."

"Then we pull a Macbeth." Janice stood, looking at Skye. "We can insert a ground team and knock out the control base for all of the guns in that sector; giving the Indignation and the two cruisers clear leeway to attack the city."

"Believe it or not…" Peppy grumbled. "I hadn't thought of that. It could certainly work, we can send a ground team in advance and knock it out, and then we can get all three of our ships close enough to the palace to start the final push."

"I volunteer." Skye said, raising his hand.

"I'm coming too." Janice said, sitting beside her lover.

Sabre looked to both of his sides to his team, the four of them nodded back at him. "You're damn right we're going. You need something blown up? Thirty minutes or it's free…" He paused, looking to Fay.

"You coming too?" He still didn't trust her.

She just nodded in return, understanding his trepidation. She almost hesitated, knowing that the lion could probably never trust her again. She knew her place was in the front lines with the rest of the team. She was the top dog for the job regardless of her standing with Blackhook.

Peppy broke in again. "Insertion may be a problem, as the Venomians have every square inch of airspace locked down. Anyone have any ideas?"

Falco scoffed. "Can't we just get down there with Arwings? Those anti-capital ship guns have no chance of bringing them down."

"If we alert the entire planet too early we'll have over a hundred ships slamming our three before we're safely at the surface. A hot drop simply is not an option."

Falco kept his beak shut, but Katt built upon his idea and took over. "Wait a second, who said anything about a hot drop? Skye finished the cloaking device on his own Arwing, is there no reason we can't just adapt similar ones for Janice's Arwing and Blackhook's dropship?"

"I could whip up something quickly for the dropship, but not the Ranger. The Indignation should have the spare parts I need… Janice would have to ride with Blackhook." He looked to her, and she nodded in approval.

"Alright, it's settled." Peppy nodded in approval. "For the first stage of the operation, Skye, Janice and Blackhook squadron will go down to the surface cloaked, knock out the control base and give our ships a window to enter the planets atmosphere with moderate ease. Then, we proceed to the Imperial Palace for stage two."

Fox interrupted him. "And we…" Fox looked to his left at Krystal, and his right to Falco and Katt. "We will head straight for Andross."

"Right." Peppy sighed. "I only wish I was still in shape to fly an Arwing, or I would go with you again. I still get nostalgic about Area Six…"

Wolf cleared his throat.

"Yes, right. Stage two." He took his seat and beckoned to Victoria. "Could you please bring up a map of the Imperial Palace district of Androsia, if you would?"

The pink holographic tiger stayed in her place, and stretched her hand forward to the map, twisting her wrist around as if she were turning a ball. The map spun with her wrist, but also zoomed in on their target. Amongst classic, useless skyscrapers two buildings stuck out the most; The immense Venom Imperial Center of Commerce, and the palace itself, which sprawled over the space of four city blocks, surrounded by a block-thick courtyard at every side that they could see was covered in guard towers.

"This, ladies and gentlemen, is our target. It is safe to assume the Amplifier is somewhere near the top of the palace for maximum signal strength."

Dawn looked unimpressed. "That's assuming they believe a telepathic signal acts the same way as a radio signal, which I can tell you from experience it doesn't. It in fact radiates better through direct contact with minds between person to person, so I believe it is more likely the amplifier is actually hidden somewhere in the main body of the palace… Wherever the most civilians are allowed to visit, and do."

Victoria looked to Dawn, and back to the map. "I'll see what I can look up." Just as she said this, a schematic of the palace was brought up, and Victoria whipped through it with impressive speed. She stopped and brought up a 3-D view of a room near the base of the castle. It was an expansive chamber, containing different statues of various famous people (including Dash himself) and what Fox recognized as a model of the device that gave Venom life. "This is the tourist exhibit room, and boasts traffic of over fifty thousand people per day. If there was any place the amplifier would be near, it would be here."

Peppy shook his head. "We need to be absolutely sure about this, we can't waste a second down there or we'll be overwhelmed."

Fay spoke up. "Once our ships are within the atmosphere the Executors Mana scanners can pinpoint the location of the amplifier and compare it to the schematics of the palace aboard the Indignation."

Halsey struck his fist against his chest in a barbaric salute. "My crew stands ready to do its part."

"Good. With the Indignation the Executor will have plenty of cover once we're over Androsia, not to mention the Wolfens of Star Wolf."

Wolf looked insulted. "Wait, what? We're playing babysitter while everyone else is in the thick of the shit?"

"Wolf, we are going to be in the thick of the MOST shit, considering we're driving two ships straight over the Venomian capitol city, one of them the single biggest threat in the system. We're going to need top standard pilots leading our squadrons to make sure we can stay in position as long as possible. We also need tactical aerial support while we send down teams of marines to the surface, who will be joined by the ground team from the control base."

Wolf scoffed at the old hare. "Fine, but only because it's necessary."

"So… Assuming we succeed…" the otherwise silent Vince said. "Then what?"

Peppy nodded at his concern. "Then we pack up and get the hell off of Venom. Good chance we won't be given a warm welcome in Corneria for going rogue, so we should probably should just break orbit and head straight for the only planet we know is safe until we can explain to the Cornerian High Command everything that happened…"

"Sauria." Fox confirmed what Peppy had in mind.

"Exactly."

Wolf stood. "It's settled, then. I'm getting sick of all of this talk… Let's be ready to head out as soon as the cloak on Blackhook's dropship is ready. How long are you going to need, Skye?"

Skye stood as well, heralding others to begin to stand. "I'll probably need about four hours assuming I get everything I need." He looked to the pink hologram at the other side of the table. "Victoria, I'll give you the list of parts I need. I'm going to go straight to dropship bay one and prepare while you have people bring me those parts. To make the job faster I will need your best maintenance team, as well."

"You got it."

Peppy nodded to the collection of heroes once everyone lifted out of their chairs. "Four hours means the ground team will head out at 3:30 LST. They will have half an hour to knock out the guns, and our main force will drop in at 4:00. Good luck to everyone."

**=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=**

**CNS Indignation**

**Cruiser Docking Bay**

**11:24 AM**

Wolf, Dawn, Vince and Panther went straight back to the Indignation's cruiser bay after the meeting further up the ships spine. The expansive chamber held both the Executor and the Great Fox II next to each other. They were headed aboard their smaller flagship to get some simulator time in before the big fight.

The four were scowled at by a mechanic that was carrying a crate of something or other across their path. Wolf simply scowled back more fiercely, which made the coon pick up his pace and look back to where he was going.

"I am getting sick of these Cornerians. I had hoped it was just going to be us and Star Fox for this. At least that would have made it more bearable rather than being surrounded by all these…" He caught two more mechanics looking at him and whispering to themselves, so he bared his fangs at them. They returned to what they were doing without another thought in his direction. "…weaklings."

Panther smiled at his grumpy attitude to the situation. "I think we should be thankful for all of these extra forces, considering the nature of what we're about to attempt."

"Thankful?" Wolf growled. "Thankful for what, babysitting duty while we could be smashing an entire empire with nothing but our Wolfens?"

Dawn shook her head. "Babysitting doesn't do this job justice. It's going to be more like playing one big game of last man standing."

"Job?! Who said this was a job? We aren't getting paid FUCK ALL." He yelled the last two words fiercely, turning more scum into his direction. He ignored them, stepping up on the loading ramp onto his home vessel. Vince, amused by this exchange, simply chuckled behind them.

As the air lock sealed behind them upon entry to the Executor, Panther tried to cheer his captain up. "I wouldn't be so hasty to say that, Wolf. I imagine the Cornerians will pay us handsomely after they hear our story from General Hare."

"You're assuming that scum bag is going to give us any credit."

"They may be democratic scum bags, Wolf, but they do have a sense of honor."

"Right… and Andross is actually Fox McCloud in disguise." Wolf rebuked sarcastically.

Dawn laughed. "Based on everything that's happened I wouldn't even be surprised at this point."

"I would, not even that god damned pup could end up looking that ugly."

Meanwhile, at the other side of the cruiser bay, Fox, Krystal, Falco and Katt were heading to the Great Fox II until the beginning of the mission. They were received comparably better, some mechanics and marines even stopping to salute their four heroes.

Fox swelled with pride, looking around to their fans. "I still can't believe all of these people were so quickly willing to dedicate to our cause."

"The General has that effect on people..." Krystal said, smiling. "Every time he talks I can feel the morale of those around him going up. He's a living legend amongst the military, just like Pepper before him."

"Let's just hope they perform down there." Falco scoffed. "The last thing we need is all these troops falling apart once the fighting gets thick."

Katt sucker punched him in the wing. "Hey, don't talk like that. Not all of us are heroes… That's our job. These people are just as capable under fire; they just need people like us to set the example. There are a lot of heroes in our little coalition here, so I think these people will do fine."

"Whatever you say…"

Fox was the first up the ramp into their mothership, the door to the vessel sealing behind them with a snap. Fox went straight for the main elevator, as he was going to go up to his room and think on what was about to happen. The others followed him.

He was, after all, about to avenge everything that had made his life a constant war.

Katt stretched. "What are you guys gonna do until show time?" She mainly spoke to Fox and Krystal, as she already had ideas about what she was going to do with Falco.

Fox looked solemn. "I just need time to prepare; I'll be in my room." It was needless to say that Krystal was going with him; so she just took his paw in hers as they stepped into the elevator.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

As soon as Fox and Krystal walked into their room and the door sealed behind them, she pushed him onto the bed, making her intentions clear through thought alone. She practically jumped on top of him, locking him into a fierce kiss that lasted nearly a minute until they broke for air.

_"What's wrong?" _Fox thought to her. _"You're like this is going to be our last time together."_

_"It might be."_ She pulled him in again, their muzzles nearly molding into one for another thirty or so seconds. She pressed herself against him as though relishing every inch of his body.

_"Don't talk like that; you know we can handle this. We're going to bring the bastard down, and we're all going to come back from it alive."_

They stopped pausing, thinking to each other while kissing fiercely. _"What if our luck is finally about to run out? We can't live like this forever."_

_"Don't jinx it."_

She giggled with her real voice. "Okay."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**3:27 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**CNJ Indignation Dropship Bay One**

Skye looked upon his rapidly thrown together creation with pride, his paws to his hips. The mechanics that had assisted him (with the extremely zealous supervision he felt necessary, of course) shoved out of the way quickly knowing they were on the clock. His peripheral vision caught Janice and Blackhook, fully armed and suited up, approaching him from the dropship bay doors.

Before, the vessel was a defenseless flying crate, with wings housing large swiveling thrusters on their tips, and a somewhat aerodynamic cockpit with a full 180 degree dome allowing a wide view range. It was now the ugliest but most effective gem of that entire hangar, and far from as useless as it once was. The cloaking device was a pain to install on such an anti-modular dropship chassis but made it the most advanced insertion craft in the Cornerian arsenal.

Hearing the footsteps of his comrades over the other commotion in the hangar, Skye spun on his heel to find his rifle, his sheathed sword and a green duffel bag flying his way. He still had plenty of time to react, and caught one weapon in each hand and let the bag hit the floor. "What's in the bag?"

Janice, passing him, just nodded her head backwards towards Sabre, who walked straight to him. With his free arm, he struck the shoulder pad of the strange armor he was wearing. "Meet the newest off the shelves at Toad Enterprises, Skye, and the most badass armor you'll ever wear." He noticed the others, including Janice, were wearing a set.

Skye began pulling his suit out of the bag, and looked at the one Sabre was wearing. It was like a thin rubber suit at first glance, but its texture was more like tough snake scale. It was mostly a matte black, with dark grey shoulder plates, belt section, knee pads and elbow pads. It didn't look particularly spectacular at first glance, but he wasn't ready to assume the armor was only what it appeared to be considering the green furred lion's excitement.

"What's so special about it?"

He pointed to the headset he was wearing, which Skye only just noticed for its compact design. All it had was an extremely small black receiver sticking in front of his mouth stretching from an inconspicuous earpiece. "This is connected to a contact that comes with it and the armor. It gives you a full HUD with all mission critical information and targeting assist… but that's only the start. It is the link between you and this armor, which has a whole plethora of badass tools."

Skye looked down again at his own flaccid set, fumbling with it to fan it out the same way you would a garbage bag, unconvinced it could be so special.

"Depending on your own thoughts, this baby can detect what is required for the situation and adapt accordingly. Everything from almost perfect invisibility cloaking -which I tested-, muscle assist for an insane burst of strength, or it can even emit a thin anti-projectile and laser shield."

Finally seeing how to get the suit on, Skye's eyebrow raised. "These were already on the Indignation?"

"Nah, apparently the kid Toad sent a care package back from his dad to here, with this armor and a bunch of crazy new smart bombs the pilot was babbling about… I don't know the details."

Skye started slipping in the suit, watching the rest of Blackhook walk by. Sabre smirked. "Watch this, it's cool. Don't be startled."

He was. The suit began to move on its own, sliding up the contours of his body to make the perfect fit. He raised his arms, unsure what else to do, as the suit literally put itself on. When the final zipper in the front reached his neck, he smirked. "Good old Beltino." He dropped his arms and got a feel for the suit. It felt tight at first feel, but it loosened on his own whenever he tried to push back against the stretch. "I am going to enjoy this." He put on the headset, finding the small bag which contained the contact for the headset. He slipped it into his right eye.

He had no idea how the suit knew who he was, but bright cyan text was displayed across his right eye's view. "_Hello, Skye. Thank you for using the Toad Enterprises Combat Adaptive Nanotech Armor. Please note that speech is not required to manually activate suit functions, as the suit can react to your thoughts."_

"How the hell?" Skye whispered. He thought to it. _"Explain how your though reading capabilities are possible."_

A classic monotone female voice whispered in his head. _"Classified information: checking for access. Approved. Dr. Andross' amplifier technology was adapted as an input for this armor system. Due to the hasty nature of the upgrade, glitches may be expected, but are improbable. Please refer to Dr Beltino for more details"_

"That was quick…" he whispered again. He heard Janice yell at him from the transport he didn't even realize was starting, but couldn't hear her over the engines. He wondered what time it was, but his watch wasn't on him.

_"The current time is 3:29 Lylat Standard Time."_

He was going to have to get used it answering his fleeting questions; despite how welcome a feature it was. He grabbed his rifle, his sword and the empty duffel bag, throwing the latter in the back hatch of the dropship and joining the others in its bay. All were present except for Fay, which he spotted in the leftmost of the two pilots' chairs at the front of the ship.

He still couldn't hear her, the back hatch still wasn't closed and the engine was too loud for him to hear. _"Accessing team frequency."_

Suddenly her words were as clear as day. "-he still can't hear us, wait. Skye, can you hear me now?"

"Loud and clear. These suits are quite impressive."

"Tell me about it! I only just got mine on now." Janice said with a grin, which turned into a frown. "Wait, weren't you going to bring your Arwing?"

"Had to use parts from my cloak for the dropship… The Indignation was missing a critical component. It's not a critical loss, when the calvary breaches atmosphere they can transport both of our fighters down."

"Hey, watch." Sabre said in amusement. They both looked at him, and he promptly vanished in thin air. "Cool, eh? Active camouflage."

All the access noise cut out as the rear hatch of the dropship sealed close. Skye could see Fay look back with a thumbs up and the view out the front viewport as the dropship began to rise. Jack shook his head. "He'll never get sick of that…"

Suddenly the dropship's bay speakers came to life with a bit of static, but it quickly cleared up. The voice on the other end was unmistakable. "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't need to remind you what is at stake." It was Peppy. "Once the Indignation sends you off flying towards Venom you will have half an hour to get that control base offline until we drop in guns blazing whether you succeed or not. All you need to do is make sure those guns can't fire when we arrive: Star Wolf will raze the entire base the second they get planet side. After that, we're going to be dropping every ground troop and all the armor we have right in the middle of Androsia to storm that castle, and you're going to be dropped straight in the thick of the shit."

"Sounds like fun." Janice said surprisingly lacking in sarcasm.

"We're counting on every one of you. Don't let us down, and best of luck. Hare out." With a click of static again, they were alone in the dropship once more. Skye quickly took inventory of what he was carrying, noticing a supply crate beside the thin door to the cockpit. There were all different types of ammunition, magazines, suppressors, several combat knives and grenades.

He got to work stripping down the marksman-variant parts of his rifle, which was modular. The scope itself even was split into three parts; the two parts closer to the barrel he removed leaving only a holographic sight suitable to short to medium range combat. The barrel, screwed together in three places, he stripped down to one. Pulling back a lever near the magazine feed, he switched it to .305 input rather than .50AE, and slapped in one of the .305 magazines in the supply crate, grabbing two more.

Realizing his suit didn't have any ammo pockets, the friendly lady inside of his head spoke to him again. _"Ammo and grenades may be carried simply by intentionally attaching them to wherever on the suit you desire. The armor will hold onto it."_

He put the theory to the test, pushing one of the magazines against his waist… The armor _stretched a thin layer around it _and held it in place just as the HUD told him. He wondered what he should call it.

_"In reference to the suits vocal avatar, you may call me Carol."_

He grabbed three more magazines, two plasma grenades, and a suppressed laser pistol. He set them just where he wanted them, and the suit gripped them tightly. The hilt of his sword sheath attached to his hip as well. Just as a test, he tried pulling out one of the magazines… The suit let go the millisecond his paw hit it.

The cockpit view turned into the black of space as the dropship left the hangar's magcon field. "Ready to jump, just waiting for the Indignation's catapult."

He sat beside Janice and buckled up, following her example. They looked at each other just as the dropship's speakers sparked with static again. "Ground team, prepare for catapult launch in T-Minus fifteen seconds. Good luck out there."

Skye spoke to Fay, knowing he didn't have to yell thanks to the suit's squad comms. "Activate the cloak, we don't want to risk being spotted as soon as we come out of hyperspace."

"You got it, cloak coming on…. whoa." Her voice trailed off as she could no longer see the nose of the craft. "That is cool."

"We will be completely invisible to scanners and the naked eye unless we hover less than approximately twenty meters away from them, of course not counting the noise from the engines."

"Neat." She took a firm grip on the controls. "Catapult in five seconds."

The jump wasn't so spectacular from the inside of the craft, but on the outside it looked like the northern lights were being shot out of a cannon. Small probes were fired from the side of the Juggernaught that circled the dropship. Each fired what looked like a small rainbow beam, and stretched back like a slingshot. With an explosion of light and energy, the dropship was turned into a blur that sent them rocketing to their final battleground.

_"Current time, 15:30:26 LST. Mission time remaining, 0:29:24. E.T.A 00:00:40"_

Janice gripped his paw tightly, but wasn't facing him. Out of nervousness? fear? faith? he didn't know.

_"Blood pressure and activity suggests nervousness."_

He rolled his eyes.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Venomian Orbit**

**Light Side of the Planet**

**5:10 PM Venom Time (Relevant Time Zone)**

The trip lasted exactly as long as Carol predicted. Forty seconds.

The once sickly green planet was still as green as he remembered, but only slightly less sickly, with the welcome addition of small pockets of blue. There was just as much resistance as they had expected; hundreds of ships in pockets over all of the planets major installations and cities. Fay pointed the dropship towards one of the blank, safe looking pockets… the safety of course being as deceitful as the nature of the new Venomian Empire. The anti-capital ship and anti-fighter guns would be waiting on the surface like starved carnivores awaiting a meal that would never come.

Fay's voice filled their headsets. It was sort of loud, but Carol automatically turned down the volume as soon as the complaint emerged in his mind. "We're entering the atmosphere. Do a final equipment check; twenty seconds until we're in visual range of the control base."

The group did as they were told. Skye double checked that he modified his rifle properly, looking again down at the peripherals he brought with him. He kept the barrel extension and the other parts of the scope attached to his suit incase he would need them. His sword hung easily from his suit, the sheath allowed to freely rotate on the spot to accommodate his sitting position. The suit never ceased to impress him. Janice had her own blade, and the assault blaster she had come to respect. She acquired a suppressed version and had it painted matte black just for this mission. Her favourite throwing knives were lined up neatly along each of her thighs. All of the Blackhook members were outfitted similarly, two flash grenades and two plasma grenades each, with a combat knife and a 10mm suppressed pistol. The only thing that differed was their primary weapons. Sabre and Miyu were using a silenced bullet-fed bullpup design assault rifle, Ian and Jack were both outfitted with identical suppressed SMG's with reflex sights, and Fay had a suppressed auto shotgun; the suppressor on which was amusingly thick.

Fay leveled them out gently after the rapid decent into atmosphere, the dropship careening across the bland landscape towards their target. The base came into view shortly after, and the ship began to slow.

As the holographic projection back in the meeting room suggested, the base was made up of three buildings; a hangar, an office-type building three stories tall, and a communications tower on top of which the sensor dish was installed. All three buildings were contained within a large fenced off zone, dotted with typical guard towers.

Fay spoke up. "I can't drop us directly inside the perimeter; the engine roar will give us away. With our suits active cloaking we should be able to walk right in the front entrance regardless."

Sabre walked up to the cockpit and sat beside her in the co-pilots couch. "See that bush there? There's a clearing in the center. Only about a hundred meters walk. Set us down there."

"You got it, Captain."

The base was surrounded by sparse forest, the clearing Sabre mentioned being one of the few ideal spots big enough for the dropship to land. She set down slowly, before her landing gear even touched down all of the soldiers got out of their seats and lined up at the back hatch. They all felt the impact of touch down, and the doors slid open.

The terraforming of Venom didn't fix one of its biggest environmental issues: it was damn hot, almost as hot as Titania. The grass was lush, the tress were of deciduous nature for the most part; but these things caused the team's eyes to betray them once they were plunged into the climate.

_"Air temperature: 31 Degrees Celsius."_

Skye wished Carol had just kept her mouth shut. He was born and raised in much colder conditions, especially all of his time aboard space faring vessels. He feared it would take until long after the mission was over to adjust.

_"Adjusting suit interior temperature to your preferences."_

"These things even have air conditioning. Fantastic."

The otherwise obnoxious Sabre suddenly turned into the steel plated killer he always became in the field. "No unnecessary chatter. Activate camouflage and form up on me. We're going to wander right through the main gates." The Blackhook members automatically sunk to a crouch, but Skye and Janice remained standing as all of them simultaneously became invisible. The back hatch of the dropship closed, making it completely invisible to anything but thermal, which Skye tested just out of curiosity. Carol answered him with a mostly blue view from his right eye, other than his deep red comrades and the dropship. It deactivated on his command.

The seven operatives kept up a rapid but professional pace through the trees, and it was only a few seconds until they came up on the main gates of the base. The guards were lax as they all had expected; who would attack Venom in its current state, and why that base in particular? Unfortunately for them, they would probably all be dead before those answers were granted to them by way of the looming shadow of the Indignation flying freely into orbit.

_"Mission time remaining: 00:24:15"_

Only two guards were standing at the closed gate, which they assumed was electrified; one on the inside, and one on the outside.

"Anyone have an idea?" Sabre whispered.

Janice answered him almost immediately. "I do. Get close to the gate and be ready."

Completely invisible, she walked carelessly up to the guard on the outside of the gate, without making a sound on her feet. She waved her hand only a foot from his face once or twice, but the cat didn't react. Her HUD showed all of her invisible team mates around her.

Without warning, she punched the guard in the gut, hard. He doubled over onto his knees and choked, his buddy on the other side suddenly becoming alarmed. To avoid the guard turning confusion into realization, Janice backed up.

The beefy looking bear guard on the inside's jaw dropped. "Kaleb?! Kaleb are you okay? What the hell is wrong? Talk to me!" he picked up his radio. Janice noticed all of the others lifting their rifles to kill the bear, but Janice stuck her hand up in a gesture to wait.

"Gatehouse, this is PFC Jacklyn at the main gate. Something is wrong with the outer guard, I think he's convulsing. Requesting the gate be opened so I may assist!"

They didn't hear the reply, but they were answered regardless by the gate opening. The bear rushed through as soon as a gap was big enough to fit him, and moved to assist his fallen comrade.

"Man, are you okay?"

"Ugh… it was like something hit me, I have no idea."

"Should we get you to the infirmary...?" The ground team was long past through the gate.

"Nice one Janice, we're in." Sabre smirked, shouldering his weapon again. "Where to?"

Skye looked up to the comms building, amused to be standing in the middle of the base with none of the outlying guards able to see him. "Our best bet is to dent their equipment to make sure it's impossible for the guns to fire. The dish at the top of the comms tower is probably the primary sensor; we take that out and the guns are blind, then we can…"

He was interrupted by Carol. _"Warning: Charge on active camouflage depleted in ten seconds. Recommend immediately seeking shelter."_

The others had obviously seen it as well, because Jack spoke with alarm. "Shit, to the comms tower!"

They wasted no time running to the building, which was conveniently the closest. Two guards stood at either end of the main doors. Sabre and Miyu took point, each slamming against one of the guards with a grip on their throat and their combat knives in the guards' chests. Ian threw the door open, and all of them fled inside; including the two corpses.

Sabre's took a bit longer to die; he held his paw to his victim's throat until his resilient heart finally stopped beating. All of their camouflages broke the millisecond the door closed, turning them all visible again.

_"Cloaking capacitors overloaded from extended use. Time until functional: 0:20:58"_

"Next time…" Ian huffed. "We ask the damn things about limitations on its features."

Sabre let go of his victim, and brought his rifle to bear again, speaking in a whisper. "Agreed; now let's move, it won't be long until they figure out those two guards are dead. Fay, take point."

"Yes captain." The dog shouldered her weapon and peeked around the first corner in the hallway. "All clear; my suits onboard schematics for the building show five floors and a stairwell at the far side of the building. I'm willing to assume that the controls for the sensor dish are up top; or at least a mean to disable it."

Ian nodded and spoke for the first time since stepping in the dropship. "I agree; even if there isn't any control panels to disable the thing from we can always just blow it up from its base."

Jack grinned. "I knew I brought all of these explosives for a reason." He was indeed wearing a backpack the others could only assume was filled to the brim with explosives.

"Whatever works; let's move." Fay snapped into movement, the others in single file behind her. The stairwell was only moments away, and they didn't encounter any other guards. None of their ears could even pick up distant footsteps on their floor or directly above them.

"Taking a break, maybe?" Janice muttered.

Sabre kept frosty. "They probably have at least one spy in the Cornerian fleet and heard the invasion was delayed."

Fay reached the door to the stairwell, finding it locked. Annoyed, her suit glowed red on her right arm; with another twist, the knob was almost completely destroyed with a sickening crunch, the door freely swinging open. "That was easy…"

_"Mission time remaining: 00:20:32"_

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**CNJ Indignation Bridge**

Peppy paced left and right across the bridge. He had complete faith in Blackhook squadron, and from what he had heard from Fox about Skye and Janice, they were both equally capable; but something didn't sit right with him. Despite over forty years of combat experience nothing ever helped the jitters he got before a huge confrontation he was unsure about. Gunning through Area 6 with Fox, nearly losing his life at the Aparoid Homeworld, going head to head against the Anglars being completely outmatched and out gunned. They all turned out fine in the end, and he tried to convince himself he would win here too. He faced impossible odds dozens of times, but this time the cards were so stacked against him and his comrades it was like going all in on a three high.

The ship itself and the brave crew around him helped to reassure him but it would be never enough. He was cruelly reminded again of his age by a sore hip that made him decide to stop walking. He took his seat in the captains chair and checked his watch; 3:40 PM.

"Comms, open a channel to the Great Fox II."

"Right away, sir."

The front view screen showed him the hangar where several of the teams Arwings were docked. He saw Fox's, Falco's, Krystal's, Katt's, and what he assumed to be Janice's. He knew Skye's was aboard the Indignation. He saw Fox run closer to his view.

"We're almost ready down here, Peppy."

"Just wanted to remind you that we only have twenty minutes until we jump. Do you have the right coordinates for your entry point?"

"Yeah." Peppy watched him put on a pair of sunglasses; the stunningly familiar shades of James McCloud.

"My god, you look just like him." Indeed, they were the icon of the ace pilot, the major feature that always separated the son from the father in the old hare's eyes. He couldn't help but swell with pride at Fox as he put them on; it felt like he finally reached his fathers legacy and became the same man that saved his share of lives in his own glory days.

"Figured they'd give me good luck… I could use every guardian I can get."

"Jim would be god damned proud of you, Fox. Lylat's hopes are on your shoulders out there."

"Aren't they always…" Fox sighed. "Great Fox out, see you in twenty minutes." The view faded off the General's screen.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Venom Area 2 Orbital Weapons Control Base **

_"Mission Time Remaining: 00:18:57"_

It felt wrong to Skye. They encountered only four patrols on their way to the control room, and thermal vision only showed six goons in the room.

"Set up for breach." Sabre said in a businesslike manner, setting a frag charge on the door. His team mates all stacked up on either side of the door getting ready to pour in. The moment he leaned against the wall next to the door the charge went off.

Sabre and Miyu leaped into the room first, Jack and Ian after them. All four of their guns answered the call of the door being breached, their relatively quiet snapping dropping the three of the victims waiting inside almost instantly. Four and Five were cut down by Ian and Jack's entrance.

The last was lucky and got cover behind some desks, leaping towards the far wall before Skye and Janice got inside… right towards an alarm switch.

Skye and Janice entering the room last, they opened fire on the mangy dog leaping from behind his cover. Several splashes of blood gave away their confirmed kill, but it was already too late. Time slowed for Sabre as he put two more into his head, but the falling corpse was already in position. The dying paw slapped the alarm switch and all of the lights turned red, heralding their own doom. Their deaths were spelled in under four seconds.

A chorus of curses were followed by the group snapping into action. Skye ran to a computer to see if he could covertly contact Peppy to start the attack early so they could blow the place and extract. Miyu and Jack ran back for the stairwell to head up to the roof where they would quickly set up explosives at the base of the sensor dish. Sabre, Ian and Janice ran to the windows, looking down at the Venomian reaction to the intrusion.

The hangar building was the primary source of trouble. Three plasma tanks rolled out the front; bigger than the standard tank especially in regards to the main cannon, which could probably wipe the top half of the tower with a single round. Fortunately for the team, they want the tower back intact. A wave of infantry marched with them. Out of the top port of the hangar rose two gunships, one after the other, that would pose a much more significant threat.

Ian growled and shouldered his sniper rifle that was slung to his back. "We have company! Two gunships and three plasma tanks, plus several squads of infantry."

As Skye worked on his computer, his face was suddenly ridden with alarm. The computer he worked at shut down completely. "I've been locked out." He jumped out of his seat, checking a couple of other consoles to see if they shared the same fate: they had. "We're going to have to rely on blowing the dish out."

Sabre's armor showed him the known schematics for the building; he was looking for an armory but was out of luck. "Fuck. We don't have access to rockets; we need a plan for those damn tanks!"

All of them stopped what they were doing, save Jack and Miyu finishing wiring the explosives, when a loudspeaker filled their eardrums through the building's PA system.

"Cornerian intruders, you have attacked a Venom defense installation and are demanded to surrender. Lay down your arms and prepare to be taken into custody."

The lion grinned. "You wish." He spoke on team frequency. "Are those charges up yet?"

Jack answered him. "Yeah, detonator is ready. Got an escape plan?"

_"Mission time remaining: 00:14:25"_

Fay looked back to her teammates. "I have a plan, but I need you guys to trust me."

Jack and Miyu got back from setting charges on the roof. Sabre looked over to her. "Well, spit it out."

She pointed her rifle at him. "Drop all of your guns; you're all in the custody of the Venom Military."

He gritted his teeth. "I don't like this."

She ignored him, switching her comm frequency to wide band. "This is deep cover operative Lieutenant Fay Spaniel, I have the intruders in custody and am waiting for relief."

Skye and Janice looked to each other, not sure whether to applaud her attempt or to gun her down on the spot. The reply they received only darkened the decision. "Copy that Lieutenant, sending a dropship to the roof. Meet us up there."

"Understood." Fay winked at Sabre, who dropped his gun reluctantly. "I'll do bloody, bloody things to you if this is a trap."

Jack growled. "We don't have a choice either way."

The others dropped their guns as well, and let Fay shepherd them to the roof where a dropship was as expected, the rear ramp opened with two guards waiting for them. The first, a bear, nudged Skye with his rifle as he walked by. "Bet you feel like idiots now, huh? Trusting a Venomian agent… get the hell on the dropship, you mangy shits." They shrugged off the gesture.

_"Mission time remaining: 00:11:13"_

Fay was the last one on, and the guards nodded to their superior. The rear ramp closed and the prisoners took their seats along the side, confused emotions on all of their faces. Skye's suit tried to reassure him. _"Lie detection passed. Chance of sincerity 86%"_

_"A fourteen percent chance we all just gave our lives away, then." _he thought to himself.

_"13.6928352% based on all relevant parameters"_

Fay walked to Jack. "Give me the detonator, scum bag." He pulled the small device from his pack. It looked like a severed joystick with the big red button trigger covered in a glass casing. They felt the dropship take to the skies as he handed it over to her. She walked to the back window and watched the building start to shrink into the distance as they took flight.

Jack's suit suddenly blinked text at him. _"Urgent message from Ms. Spaniel: Query about the maximum distance of the detonators effect."_

He thought back to it. _"As long as you're on the same planet. Expect lag at extreme distances."_

It seemed like several minutes until anyone finally moved again.

Skye checked to make sure he wasn't just stretching the flow of time with his worry. _"Mission time remaining: 00:07:21"_

Finally breaking the calm, Fay walked over to Skye, noticing his silenced pistol still on his hip. She gestured to him and he understood, handing it over. Rather than stow it away, she raised it to one of the guard's heads, the other to his comrade. With a quick tap, the two were dead on the ground, their heads bleeding.

Janice pulled her own pistol and headed for the cockpit, Sabre stood with a nervous smile on his face. "Had me worried for a minute there."

"Do you trust me now, Captain?" she asked innocently. They felt the dropship lurch as Janice dragged the dead body of the pilot out of his chair and took over the controls. She raised the detonator, and flipped the cap.

"Just hit the damn detonator, jack ass."

"Wait up." Janice said from the cockpit. "We have gunships on either side of us. If they realize what happened we're toast."

Skye joined her, taking the co-pilot seat, looking over the console. "This thing doesn't have any weapons."

"Can't we just wait for Wolf?"

"That won't be quick enough. We need to blow the charges now and try to take those choppers down. Guys, is there any heavy weapons back there?"

Sabre grunted. "A mountable machine gun, sure."

"Get it ready and tell me when to pop the rear hatch. Blow the charges."

Fay did what she was told. After a three second wait, a bright light emanated from the barely visible base and they knew they were successful. Sabre got immediately to work hooking up an energy clip box to the gun and setting up its tripod; the whole movement took no longer than ten seconds. "We're ready."

A channel opened with the gunship to their port side. "Dropship one we have reports of an explosion from the base. What is your status, over?"

Janice grinned. "Oh we're just dandy over here, can't say the same for your friends." She cut the channel.

Skye slapped the rear hatch release and could feel the wind as all of the recycled air they had been breathing was sucked out into the open sky. Janice pulled the joystick back and to the left, causing it to rear in protest and give it's back to the two gunships that took too long to react. The heavy repeater laser lit up the entire back end of the dropship and slammed their ear drums. The right side gunship was the first victim, the rapid laser fire cutting through one of its wings and sending the smoking wreck crashing into the forest canopy below.

The other caught onto the carnage before Sabre could tilt the gun around. The gunship pulled off out of his firing arc to the right and tried to circle around to the front of them. "Shit, Janice, turn this rig around starboard side."

He started firing again as soon as the his view caught up with their attacker, spraying the now visible front end. This time he was hitting raised shields, and he knew they were seconds away from being fried by it's missile launchers. "Fuck, that thing has tough shields!"

Skye gritted his teeth when the ships console reported a missile lock on. "Shit! Janice! Pull up!"

She did as she was told, the incoming missile barely missing the underside of the craft. Sabre was nearly thrown off of the gun but kept his grip. His new angle granted him a view of the oncoming missile and he sprayed it with heavy repeater fire. He was rewarded with the missile being detonated. "They're gonna fire again! Give me an angle!"

"Too late!" she cried. The dropship was too slow to turn, and the gunship was ready to fire again.

_"Mission Time Remaining: -00:00:51"_

Another set of lasers entered the fray; this time from above. The gunship was torn asunder as the four Wolfens of Star Wolf flashed past the dropship. "Wolf here, looks like we got you in the nick of time."

"Biggest understatement of this whole war, O'Donnell." Sabre grinned. "Thanks a lot."

"Don't mention it. Set a course for Androsia, the Indignation is on it's way down, we're gonna drop all the marines and armor we have right in the courtyard and the old man wants you guys leading the assault. None of you were KO'd, right?"

"Nah…" the lion grinned, looking back to the girl he could finally trust again."We're fine. Could use some fresh guns, though."

**(( Part two on the way soon. Hope you guys enjoyed that.))**


	20. Chapter 19: Into the Breach

**Chapter 19: Into the Breach**

**August 14th, 3:25 PM Lylat Standard Time**

**Great Fox Hangar**

Whilst Skye and the others were finishing up on the surface of Venom, those aboard the Indignation and the Great Fox in dead space between Macbeth and Venom were preparing both their minds and their weapons for the upcoming battle. Star Fox was no exception. Fox, Krystal, Katt and Falco all were doing final checks on their fighters before throwing themselves at Andross to end Lylat's suffering once and for all. They could nearly already feel the cold of space as if in anticipation to their impending doom. Fox, in particular, could not drive Andross' threat out of his mind despite his best efforts.

_"The final ingredient is easily the most important; I require a telepath to initiate the process, willing or otherwise."_

He deeply feared that Krystal's stubbornness on the matter would get them all killed. He checked his Arwings interior clock, it telling him there was only two minutes left until both carriers would jump. Fox already instructed Rob to jump alongside the Indignation upon Peppy's command. All four pilots were sitting in their cockpits awaiting the battle. "Everyone ready?" He looked down at the staff Krystal had made for him. The crystal at its peak shone as if even it were telling him not to worry, its light showing him a reflection of himself on his canopy shield, his father looking back at him in the reflection. No… It was not James McCloud; it was his turn to carry the torch. The sunglasses made him look identical to the memories of his father; he wondered to himself whether he would succeed where the last generation failed.

Falco sounded annoyed. "How many times are you gonna ask that? We've been ready for ten minutes."

"I know… I know!" he replied, frustrated. "I don't even know why I'm nervous. The defenses aren't even supposed to be as thick as the first war."

Krystal tried to reassure him. "You made the same run when you were only eighteen years old, Fox… We can do it again now."

Katt added her own two cents. "She's right, sugar. We have this in the bag. We're gonna gun the old man down like a fish in a barrel."

Fox shook his head, eyes closed in his cockpit. "His tactics have become more dirty and underhanded than ever. He must have a backup plan up his sleeve incase we hit both locations. I refuse to believe this is going to be that easy."

"The amplifier dish in Androsia _is _the backup plan, remember?" Despite her attempts to refute his worries they refused to give him peace. Fox stayed in silence, keeping his worries to himself. His adrenaline was pumping and they hadn't even launched yet.

His comm crackled to life after what felt like an hour of silent solitude, the voice of Rob filling the cockpit. "LAUNCH IN TEN SECONDS. PREPARE FOR COMBAT. GOOD LUCK, TEAM"

As the robot spoke, he could feel the ship rumble as it jumped to warp. The docking bay doors began to slide open before they even reached their destination, showing the colorful waves of space being stretched. The four Arwings were already pointed towards the doors and their final destination.

"We're going to kill him this time." Fox said in nearly a whisper.

"Once and for all." Krystal replied equally quiet.

Falco was comparatively rowdy. "I always wanted to test whether our lasers capacitors could run out; today's the day!"

Katt nearly cheered. "Let's rock and roll!"

Their proximity to Venom from their waiting point made the trip a short one. The docking bay doors only just finished opening by the time the ship snapped out of orbit. Fox hit the ignition switch on his Arwings console and saw three green blips appearing on his radar to signify his fellows had done the same. He didn't even need to notice the red to see the angry cloud of foes scrambling to intercept them.

He gripped the yoke of his Arwing. "It's go time! Team Starfox… **launch!"**

The four fighters leaped into battle, their engines roaring with a bloodlust that would only be substantiated by no less than several hundred kills a piece. The first defensive wave loomed upon them; three large battleships and a score of fighters apiece were all they could muster in time against their initial assault. The vanguard was swarming them from their entire front 180 degree view, one ship from each side and one coming straight on.

Fox snapped right to work. "Falco, Krystal, deal with those squadrons. Katt, take the right side ship, I'll take the left. Rob, take the Great Fox straight through and smash the lead one and any swaths of fighters that get in your way."

All four of his teammates chimed in. "You got it."

"Understood, Fox."

"The fucker won't know what hit him."

"COMMAND RECEIVED. MOVING INTO POSITION."

It had long ago become routine, taking down capital ships on his own. This time felt no different save the adrenaline that pumped through his veins, and the fact that he had to conserve smart bombs for when he really needed them. Star Fox was in for a long fight. Slamming on the boost he gunned for the battleship approaching from the Great Fox II's left head on.

Falco was following close behind him to get his first cloud of kills from the squadron coming from Fox's target. His multi-lock sang with glee as he took his marks, the unsuspecting twelve fighters happily marching onto their deaths.

The avian grinned with bloody satisfaction. "Twelve clean locks." He didn't need to say anything else. Fox sped through a field of destruction, the fighters he flew past all vaporizing in a shower of explosive energy as he took his mark that was the battle ship. Falco sped through the debris that was once a proud Venomian squadron just for the fun of it before changing course to the second group coming from the lead battleship.

"Nice shot, Falco. How are you doing over there, girls?"

Krystal and Katt, lacking in Falco's distinct advantage over groups, weren't faring nearly as efficiently but still hadn't taken any hits. Katt answered Fox as she sped through the wrecks of three downed fighters towards her own target. "Well, have to give them credit for trying, I suppose. You would think they would invest in better fighters…"

Krystal gave her own more professional assessment. "Half the squad down. They're starting to scatter as if they're taking us more seriously."

"Good. They made the same mistake last time. Falco, go for the third squad before it get's to the Great Fox."

"Consider it done." the avian chimed, slamming the boost towards the group heading straight on for their flying home. Fox finally reached his destination, the long rectangular battleship opening up on him with its anti-fighter array as he approached. In a nearly effortless gesture he slammed through the shields with a barrel roll and poured lasers on the side of it's hull, taking care of every important looking system. He felt relaxed; which he knew was good. He would need all of his adrenaline for when Venom truly reacted to their assault. He broke through the shields at the hind end and started a leisurely turn to meet the engines. "Almost got target one. Katt, how are you doing?"

Katt had similar success, neatly plunging through the shields of her target. Rather than fly along the side to take out some of its guns she went straight for the bridge, venting it with a quick spread of plasma. She then went over the top of it, smashing it's comms dish, one of the main beam cannons, two flak cannons and wiped out the top engine that she barely had an angle on leaving the other side of the vessel. Losing its triple, the other two engines on the ship winked out, leaving it dead in space. By the time they were repaired, the war would be long over... better or for worse. Katt rolled through where the shields should have been but found that they were already down. She left the derelict to its devices as she turned towards the third battleship. "She's junked. Going for the third."

Fox completed his arc and fired through the downed shields on the battleship, its remaining guns on his attacking side flailing uselessly to bring their reaper down. Three satisfying explosions immediately cut out the ion glow of the ships engines, and Fox turned course to the last set of attackers, being careful to dodge a heavy laser blast that came a bit too close for comfort. "We probably only have a couple more minutes until they scramble their main defense to stop either us or the Indignation. Be ready."

Falco and Katt were the closest to the third squadron of fighters, which broke apart immediately to avoid sharing the same fate as Falco's last set of targets. His multi lock still caught four, and the laser bombs split satisfyingly into each of them. That left eight fighters, three of which he spotted taking up position behind Katt.

"Three on your tail, babe."

"Take 'em down quick, Falco; I'm not wasting time to flip around."

Grumbling, he brought the nimble Sky Claw behind her assailants, whom had already began to fire. Katt only needed to deflect two close shots with a barrel roll before Falco used lasers to chew them through. The last five fighters swooped down upon him as he blasted through the wrecks of his targets, so he hit the boost to break through their formation before they could light up his shields. "Man, these guys are slow."

Fox hit his freshly recharged boost towards the last cloud of fighters, knowing that Katt would deal with the battleship before he even got there. Falco took two more by the time he got into range, leaving the last three on his tail. Fox sprayed his hyper lasers to the crowd, invoking two clean kills and a fireball, Falco dodging out of the way of a couple stray shots. "Stay focused. We'll need every inch of shields for the real party."

The Great Fox closed in on the battleship in its path with indomitable resolve, its main disruptor cannons falling in range before its opponents beam cannons. With two bright yellow flashes, the lasers slammed into the shields of its target causing them to bend backwards in protest. They held, but not against Katt's sudden entry. She came from the side not to get in the way of the Great Fox's punishment, taking out a beam cannon and what she knew to be the main deflector dish. She flew out of the ships range without a care in the world. "Her shields are out. Finish it, Rob."

He did exactly that. The battleships beam cannons began to light up, but not before the Great Fox's disruptors were ready to fire again. With two more fearsome flashes the bow of the battleship was vapourized, the impact sending it on to join its derelict comrades. Krystal shouted with glee. "First wave clear!"

The four fighters formed up in front of the Great Fox. White dots began to show up on radar; which signified debris… the graveyard of Star Fox's last encounter with Area 6. Two more red dots joined them, each with their own cloud of fighters. Two squadrons each.

"WARNING. TWO LONG RANGE MISSILE FRIGATES HAVE JUMPED INTO THE COMBAT ZONE."

Those frigates would mean anti-captial ship missiles, they would be going for the Great Fox II. "Krystal, I need you to stay behind on missile duty. I'll take one frigate, Katt takes the other. Falco, bust those escort fighters."

Four "Copy that's" answered him as the other Arwings buzzed off to do their work. Fox became suspicious quickly. _"This is too easy. Where is the action?"_

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Above Androsia City**

The other end of the assault knew that answer all too well. The Indignation and the Executor projected together a massive shadow over the city below, blocking out the sunlight like their enemy's hopes. Civilians and soldiers alike scrambled through the streets mostly running for their lives under the assumption that they were going to be bombed to all hell. The dropship the ground team had stolen weaved through skyscrapers that were untouched as of that moment; but that would probably change soon. In the distance, two buildings took up a significant portion of the horizon. The huge outline of the Androsian center of trade, and their target, the palace itself.

The four Wolfens of Wolf, Panther, Vince and Dawn surrounded their dropship. They were heading straight for the palace to deal with the amplifier array before it was too late, Peppy's forces would be working to keep the palace clear so they wouldn't meet reinforcements coming from the bases scattered around the city.

The Indignation itself was having its shields slammed by three Venomian dreadnaughts, but it refused to return fire. The debris from destroyed enemy ships would kill thousands of innocent civilians below; a risk the General wouldn't take. Regardless, the mighty fortress ship could take their full on harassment for two hours or more before it had to pull out. It was deploying a shit load of dropships, most of which carrying some sort of vehicle; including but not limited to tanks and APC's. Two such dropships formed up on Blackhook's and opened a comm frequency.

A middle aged man contacted them. "This is Lieutenant Dawson of the 3rd marine battalion; we're to accompany you to the amplifier dish. We also have fresh guns and ammunition as requested."

Fay let her right paw dance across the communications console on the dash control board of the dropship, joining the channel they had just been invited to. "Lieutenant Spaniel here, much obliged, soldier. Where are we setting down?"

"All three of us are to set down in the north west courtyard of the palace and proceed inside, find the amplifier, and then any other targets of opportunity."

"Copy that." The canine opened a channel to the Executor. "Fay here, have you pinpointed the dish yet?"

Halsey, sitting leisurely on the bridge as the Indignation's shields gave him a front row seat of the attack, replied. "Halsey here, we have. Victoria was right; the dish is in the main exhibit chamber. Comparing it to the castle schematics it appears to be inside the replica of the device used to purify Venom's surface… ironic, eh?"

"Thanks Captain, Fay out." She opened another channel, this time to the Star Wolf team frequency. "Fay here, what's your guys' plan?"

Wolf's typically growly voice answered her. "We're gonna be cleaning up fighters around the palace and providing close air support. If you need something trashed just give us a call."

"Got it." She looked out the front canopy down to the ground to pick a landing spot. The palace was surrounded by a mostly flat grassy courtyard separated into four parts, all of which protected by a massive circular wall covered in sentries that were picking at them with sniper fire, only to hit the dropships raised shields. Each of the courtyards was packed with guards typically, especially the one she was told to land in. "Wolf, there's a shit ton of infantry and a tank on the ground in the north west courtyard, we're going to land there. Can you take them out?"

"Roger that." Two of the Wolfens sped ahead of them, arcing towards their target. The other two broke off and went after fighters that were buzzing around the palace perimeter. A string of lasers spelled the doom of the ones occupying their landing zone, a string of explosions paving the ground team's way in. The two Wolfens took back up to the skies probably looking for more action.

Fay's dropship went straight for the ground, the other two using their mounted heavy repeater blasters to clean up some surviving infantry on their approach. There were only four rifles from their dead Venomian detainers, Ian and Skye both opted to wait until they could get their hands on marksman rifles. Janice, Sabre, Jack and Miyu all burst out of the back of the dropship with their blasters trained on anything that moved, but there was nothing left from the heavy onslaught. The courtyard that once would have been beautiful was now a wreck of violence, with some fires burning away at the vegetation.

Skye and Ian were more leisurely coming out, as there were no signs of gunfire. The other two dropships landed, eight Cornerian marines pouring from each, one bloodhound that wore the unmistakable Lieutenants bars ran up to them. "I'm Lieutenant Dawson; dropship two has extra med supplies and fresh pieces if you need them. We'll head out the second you're ready."

Skye nodded, clapping the lieutenant on the shoulder with his paw. "We'll be quick." The others followed them and they practically jumped onto the dropship like children to the presents under a Christmas tree. To call them spare firearms would be an insult to the armory they had brought with them; many different kinds of rifles were scattered around the back of the dropship, including a couple modern looking weapons that Skye didn't recognize. He picked one up, and gave it a look over; it was an irregularly long, sleek weapon shaped like a triangular prism with a flat end facing up, a scope mounted on it. The clip was, to his surprise, nearly as long as his forearm. Dawson came up behind him. "That's the new PMAC-30, or the Gauss rifle for short. Great marksman weapons." Skye grinned, flipping off the safety and taking a couple extra of the huge clips. "Four shots per clip, each one guaranteed to tear apart anything it hits. The Indignation had a whole damn stack of the suckers lying around in the platoon barracks."

"I'm intrigued. How does it rate for range?" He asked mostly out of curiosity, as most of the fighting was going to be indoors. While he said this he grabbed a standard blaster which Carol grabbed for him. His sword hung on his other hip.

"Its sheer velocity makes it nearly completely ignore wind and gravity until ranges beyond a mortal's ability to aim. Sights are already calibrated; it'll hit its mark every time. No exceptions."

The snow leopard turned around to his team mates, who were already armed. Sabre was the first standing outside of the dropship, carrying a repeater blaster reminiscent of an old ballistic machine gun, with a thermal target sensor screen hanging off the left side and a holographic sight. Ian grabbed a more conventional marksman rifle, one of the basic EPMR-10 energy sniper rifles that were standard issue from the Aparoid conflict, rather than the gauss rifle. Miyu was quickly beside Sabre with a bullet fed SMG complete with rail mounted dot sight and hollow stock. Janice still had her sword, and she grabbed a fresh assault blaster without any special ornaments. Jack grabbed an assault blaster with a mounted holographic sight, and also a spread blaster which he placed on his back where the suit gripped it tightly.

As soon as Sabre saw Skye descend from the dropship, he stood to address the platoon of marines under his command and his team mates. "Alright everyone, we all know what's at stake here. If we don't blow that god damn device, Andross is gonna turn us all into slobbering mutants and I know none of you want that. Neither will your families, your friends and you lovers."

It was pep talk time. "Fate has handed Lylat one beating after another with the same guy pulling the strings all along. That man isn't going to survive the night; but unless we kick the same ass McCloud is kicking, it won't matter. The corps gave us rifles for a reason. It wasn't so we could stretch the governments reach to other planets, and it wasn't just for the sake of victory. No. The corps gave us rifles so we could defend our home, our loved ones, and their freedom." He began to pace around his troops, giving gazes of confidence to those who seemed to be slipping from the epitome of courage.

"We're out here guns-a-blazin' so your wives, husbands and children can go downstairs tomorrow morning, flip on the vidscreen and find on the news about how twenty-two soldiers crushed the core of the entire Venom Military just so that they could sleep soundly at night. They're gonna hear about how we left the most fearsome trail of dead bad guys ever recorded in Lylat's history!" He raised his rifle, and roared out the way only a Lion could. The marines cheered with him, with their own bestial roars and cries.

"Let's kick ass, marines!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Meanwhile, in the skies...**

Wolf made another pass around the palace. Only two squadrons could rapidly respond to the attack and replace their fallen comrades that were simply on routine control, and it was all starting to become boring. In particular, he found himself annoyed at the fact that Peppy was refusing to fire back at the dreadnaughts pinging at its shields… Something about mercy for the innocent, it all bored him. At least they were spitting out fighters that were fair game, but very few of them made it from the other side of the Indignation through Bill Grey's units and the juggernaught's anti-fighter turrets.

Suddenly, as thought to answer his prayers, a string of red dots appeared on his radar. "You guys see that?"

Panther sounded equally excited. "I do. It looks like we have some more playmates."

The comparatively concerned voice of General Hare was introduced to them by a burst of static. "Star Wolf, that line of fighters aren't just a standard wave, they're a full squad of Wolfen II's, the lead we've identified as some kind of retrofit . Do you recognize it?"

As he moved to face them head on, he did indeed recognize the lead fighter of the Wolfen line…. the Wolfen was the amazingly powerful ship his team was flying against Star Fox over Venom. So powerful, in fact, that they had to be wearing special protective armor just to fly them. "Yeah, I know them. We'll take care of it. Wolf out."

He let his curiosity get the better of him and started an open band channel. "Is that who I think it is?"

His gut was right, as usual. The freakish, insane voice of the lizard he thought dead answered him. "Yes, Wolf, it is I. Leon. The one you left in a mangled mess of molten metal. The one who was left hanging on the brink of death with damaged life support for two hours before a Venomian shuttle recovered my fighter… Bowman has granted me new life, O'Donnell, for that I owe him a debt that far outdoes any ties I had with you."

"Yeah, yeah… save the crap. There's far more at stake here than honor and debt, Leon. You're standing in the way of our survival… so I'm going to have to gut you. Sorry, old pal." He closed the channel, not waiting for a response, and switched back to squadron frequency. "No mercy. Take them down, the quicker the better. We don't want to have to dodge reinforcements during this fight."

Dawn picked her target and smirked like a hunter about to pounce upon its prey. "Right behind you, Wolf."

"Leon is going to regret turning his back on us…" Vince's voice was sinister, packed chalk full of bloodlust.

Panther was in a similar state of zen. "_Ahh_, the call of battle. There is no place for weaklings here… We will now prove ourselves as not only-"

"_Cram it_, fuzzy. You _know_ I hate that."

"Sorry, boss."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Venom's Core**

The old ape stood beside his grandson who he had warmed up to in the past few weeks. Rather than the unstoppable wave of incompetence he was used to in his subordinates, in particular his own nephew Andrew, Dash had proved himself intensely capable. Andross wondered whether he would remain so loyal if not so completely drugged by his telepathic influence. He didn't even question the fact that he was actually alive, despite what he had convinced the boy. The two were alone on a large floating platform in the same chamber of his previous rise to power, deep under Venom's crust. Everything was prepared; the telepathic conduit, his life's work, a massive ring-gate like device floating in the center of the chamber, would soon be put to use and drive him to his ultimate victory. He almost felt remorse for the guaranteed death of his grandson and all of the others that had proved so worthy of him in the past months, but this was replaced by the anticipation of McCloud's death.

His voice was like a booming loudspeaker in the young ape's mind. "They are coming, I can feel them."

Dash spoke with his own voice. "They will be here soon."

"Deploy the _Evicerator._"

"Grandfather? Should we waste such a valuable resource so soon?"

"Our enemies are at the palace, and they mean to destroy the main dish. We need to draw the Indignation away from there until McCloud -and his whore of a woman- can get here so we can initiate the ritual."

"As you command, grandfather."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Area Six Ship Graveyard**

A threatening chunk of debris vapourized under Fox's guns. Three more ships after the missile frigates joined the mass of stellar junk that was the graveyard of the old Area 6… the graveyard his team had created. It would be only a matter of seconds until the next wave showed up, and after they got through the graveyard, they would hit the real defenses. For now, all they could do was conserve the Great Fox's shields by blowing away larger chunks of crap.

Just as Fox was getting used to the silence, a huge red blip appeared on his radar… a blip he hadn't seen since…

"ALERT. ALERT. NEW ENEMY CONTACT. SENSORS 100% CONFIRMED. VENOMIAN JUGGERNAUGHT CLASS WARSHIP HAS WARPED IN FROM UNKNOWN COORDINATES. IT IS ON AN INTERCEPT COURSE WITH THE INDIGNATION. IFF TAG LABELS IT AS THE VIJ EVICERATOR."

The colour drained from Fox's face. "You can't be serious!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Admiral Samuel Kitomer, a middle aged black lab, was one of the Venomian's few remaining top command officers and easily the most ruthless. He wore a predator's grin as his battle ready monster of a ship descended into Venom's surface. After overseeing it's construction for so long on the sidelines in dead space, he was overjoyed to be back in the throes of combat. He practically growled at his sensors officer. "How long until we are within weapons range of the Indignation?"

"Five minutes, sir." the avian spoke with only half confidence, aware of the consequences of making the admiral angry. He had once witnessed the man slit a bridge officer's throat for telling him the shields of his vessel at the time, the infinitely smaller fleet escort _Ravager_, were below twenty percent. He suddenly noticed several smaller blips on his radar far closer. "Sir, I'm picking up new targets…" he paused."Confirmed, it's Star Fox. They are barely out of weapons range."

Kitomer toyed with the idea of deviating course. While he was given direct orders to intercept the forces attacking the palace, he supposed he could take a couple of extra minutes and dispose of that nuisance McCloud once and for all. "Excellent. Bring all guns to bear and prepare to launch fighter squadrons."

"Sir?"

"Do it, lieutenant. We're in no rush to deal with our other guests… they can wait while we exterminate these pests."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Falco was shaking his head in disbelief. "No way, they have TWO of those things?"

Rob spoke up again with increased alarm. "IT IS CHANGING COURSE TO INTERCEPT US. REQUESTING ORDERS."

Fox couldn't believe what was happening. The mission had gone from a relaxing jaunt in the park to an inescapable nightmare in moments… there was only one thing he could do. "If the Great Fox is destroyed by that thing, this will become a one way trip. We need to punch right inside of that bitch and blow her core."

Krystal would have none of it. "Fox, that's insane, even for us! We'll only have two minutes before it obliterates the Great Fox, and there's no way to escape it once the chain reaction starts!"

Falco said something that surprised them all. "I hate to say it Fox, but she's right. There's no way the Great Fox is going to survive this. We had inside help last time and large asteroid cover, this debris won't do dick all. Rob is toast if he doesn't get out of here now."

"I know… I…" He didn't have time to think, the massive ship was turning around to face them and his home would be vapourized. It didn't even have time to escape Venom's gravity well to go to hyperspace.

"We can't just sit here while the Great Fox is vapourized, Fox!" Katt shouted. "What are we going to do?"

He snapped back into determination. He had allowed his head to swim with the destruction of the ship he had called his home but he didn't have a second to spare. "Rob, get the hell back as far as you can. Defensive pattern, use whatever you can as cover and try to stay out of range of as many cannons as you can. Krystal, Katt, you two are on guard duty. Don't let any fighters or missiles touch the Great Fox. Falco, you're with me, we're going to gut that bitch."

Krystal still tried to dissuade him. "Fox, they can just close the blast doors to the core chamber and lock you in! You won't get out of it alive, there has to be some other way!"

"That's why Falco is gonna vent the bridge before I get in there. It's our only shot."

"No…" the avian whispered. "You know I'm quicker than you. I'll go in, you vent the bridge."

The two fighters boosted towards the ship, not wasting another second. Fighter waves began to pour of its bays, only visible to the two brothers in arms as dozens of bright specs in the distance, their backdrop being Venom itself.

"Okay, Falco… Good luck."

"I won't need it if you don't screw up."

Fox chuckled. "Oh, piss off."

"Just kidding… good luck to you, too."

Krystal chimed in. "Fox, Falco… be careful."

Katt did as well. "Don't be getting yourself shot down, Falco, you still owe me that date."

The shape of the Evicerator grew ever larger and the first waves of fighters began to meet them. The two Arwings let lose with fully automatic laser fire, not stopping for anything. They left explosions in their wake, the Venomians unfortunate enough to get caught in their approach being added to the ever growing mass of debris. They dodged lasers, debris, and fighters alike, totally ignoring where they ended up on their suicidal approach.

"Just like old times?" Falco said.

"A little more at stake here, but sure."

They were upon the behemoth in no more than thirty seconds of abusing their fighters throttles. Fox pulled straight up towards the bridge, Falco wasting no time shoving his way right into one of the fighter ports into the ship's superstructure with a blaze of laser fire. From the distance, Fox could tell where he entered just from the explosions in the side of the vessel. It was his turn to act.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Admiral Kitomer! We have reports of a foreign object entering superstructure gate 37! Possibly enemy fighter!"

It was this outcome that the admiral was most worried about; only ten minutes into service and the ship's weakness was already being exploited… however he had prepared for that. "Begin closing all of the…"

He stopped his sentence when he noticed a small, bright light getting larger by the moment. Several of his fighters were chasing it to no success. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Enemy Arwing! Confirmed ID as Fox McCloud!"

The admiral barked. "Damnit! All forward weapons, and I mean ALL of them, target that fighter! I want it gone!" He slammed one of his paws on his command console.

Even the beam cannons on the Juggernaut's front side powered up to meet the one man fighter. Kitomer watched his thermal monitors on all the main guns skyrocket in anticipation of their shot, and he silently urged them faster. The smaller guns had already opened up, putting on an incredibly thick light show in front of them. He smiled in confidence, there was no way he could survive. There was so much concentrated fire that he couldn't even see his assailant.

Or so he thought, until he noticed one glint of light that was going in the wrong direction... straight for him.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Fox sighed with relief as he watched his smart bomb project right on target; but with the incredible amount of fire he that was streaking around the outside of his fighter he didn't dare watch to see if it made it's mark... it was close enough regardless that there were no defense lasers that could shoot it down. He rocketed past the top of the upper spire of the vessel, breaking away before the lasers could turn around and catch him. He was now shaking with adrenaline from the dozens of near misses dodging the wave of fire, but now he could relax and simply wish Falco luck. Quickly checking his shield capacitors -which still read a healthy 72% - he swung around at a safe distance watching the smart bomb go off, taking out a decent chunk of the upper spire.

"HIT CONFIRMED. JUGGERNAUGHT SUPERSTRUCTURE SEALING PROCEDURES HAVE STOPPED. FALCO'S LIFE SIGNS STILL READ NOMINAL."

"Good luck, buddy." he whispered to himself. He was too deep in for his communications to reach him... too much interference from the core. He was far enough from the ship now that its long range guns had no chance of hitting him, so they could only wait.

=-=-=-=-=-=

Falco gritted his teeth, he almost regretted taking this challenge on. "Too late to turn back now..." he reminded himself. He thanked the stars when the slowly closing gates at every difficult corner stopped closing, they were already barely wide enough for him to maneuver through. Thankfully there wasn't any turret defense inside that would give him unwanted distraction as he had mere meters clearance at each gate.

Several guards walking along the wall-side walkways did ping at his shields uselessly with hand-held lasers, and while it was a desperate move, Falco couldn't blame them. They were, after all, completely screwed if he pulled this off.

_When_ he pulled this off, he reminded himself.

He quickly cursed for letting himself drift into thoughts of his chances, as he felt a horrible impact that sent him astray and almost into the wall of the tunnel if not for his reflexes bringing him back into course. He checked his diagnostic panel, which was glowing red with a report that his right wing had the far half of it clipped clean off. He began to compensate, swearing consistently. Quick turns, close calls in the half-closed seal doors that left holes no more than thirty meters tall and ten meters wide he had to half roll to get through. He sighed with relief when he reached the massive reactor chamber, but knew the battle was only half over.

He primed a smart bomb, setting it to a twenty second timed detonation. He hastily aimed at the top of the core, punching the trigger and watching the explosive slam into the surface, smashing glass that was left floating in the air. He made a quick 180 back the way he came.

"Enjoy your present, mother fucker."

Despite the danger he slammed the boost back into the treacherous tunnels, his Arwing crying for mercy in the form of several alarms indicating a huge system failure spreading from the injured wing. He didn't have long until his starboard G-Diffuser pylon failed.

His escape was much more rushed, seeing electronics shatter and explode on the outsides of the tunnel in the face of an imminent reactor overload; the damage to the reactor shield without the bomb detonation was already enough to cause catastrophic damage...

_10 seconds until detonation._ There were only a couple of gates left, he could make it. He was on the final stretch.

_8 seconds until detonation. _A part of one of the walkways fell and smashed off the tip of the left wing, but not nearly as bad as the right one, whose failure was spreading to the starboard engine quickly.

_6 seconds until detonation. _He was clear of the second last gate, just one more until freedom. He could see the glorious expanse of space.

_4 seconds until detonation._ The gate wasn't wide enough, it must have been closing. He opened up with lasers in a panic, and watched it heat up. He was about to impact.

_2 seconds until detonation. _The gate gave away to being superheated by his concentrated fire and blew out, it was just barely a fit. The rest of his wings were both knocked off and he lost half his speed, he would have been crushed on the inside of the cockpit if not for the remaining left G-Diffuser.

_Detonation in progress._ He saw the reflection in his cockpit shield light up as the ship he left behind began to explode, the giving away to the burst almost immediately, the saucer section splitting in half and the spires launching away from the center of the vessel. Out of instinct he slid his shield power all to the back, but still saw them drain insanely fast. The explosion enveloped his fighter.

When the light subsided, the last thing he felt was intense pain in every inch of his body, causing him to scream... until it was all replaced by the sheer cold of space.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Androsia Palace**

Skye could have sworn the defenses on the inside of the palace were even worse than the rest of the city combined. The first floor, and thankfully the only one they had to traverse, was organized into several massive rooms, half of them history exhibits, but the room they had reached first from the courtyard was a massive dining hall.

The company of marines stormed into the ballroom like rolling thunder, toppling over tables as cover from the immediate ambush from the balconies at the other side. They didn't have a choice, and four of the soldiers were cut down immediately before they could get to their makeshift cover.

Skye made a baseball slide in behind the Sabre's table, who shouted to him over the chaos. "Good thing that asshole spent so much on these tables, they're all made of heat resistant metal." He popped up and took a shot at the defenders in the balconies, spotting two more waves entering in the far end of the room.

Skye popped from behind cover and looked down the scope of his new rail gun, immediately taking notice of a support holding up one of the far balconies. He took the shot, and splintering wood exploded under the force of the hit. A glowing blue bullet trail gave away his position but it mattered little, as many of the ones who noticed it were on the balcony that was now giving way to the weight of their occupants, screams being heard over the gunfire as the rubble and flesh crashed into the dance floor below. Skye was practically knocked down by the unexpected recoil, receiving a grin from his cover-mate. "Nice shot."

Further down the room, Janice was under cover with one of the marines, who she watched pop out of cover to spray the new waves coming in only to see his head snap back with a smoking crater where his face used to be. Only half unnerved, she took the rest of his ammunition -conveniently he carried the same clips used by her own rifle- and opened up on the incoming wave praying for a bit more luck than her comrade.

Sabre shouted down the line of his pinned down squad-mates. "READY PLASMA GRENADE VOLLEY!"

It was messy, but a certainly through option. Fire was raining down on them so hard now that even the sturdy tables they were using as cover were close to giving way. "THROW!"

The two dozen little balls with the glowing red buttons were hurled over into the enemy forces that were realizing far too late what was happening. A string of heated explosions went off, throwing Venomian soldier bodies like ragdolls and completely incinerating those that were too close to a grenade.

It was needless to order the charge after that, as there were so few hostiles remaining and even they were disoriented beyond the ability to defend themselves. Only some of the marines screamed a battle cry, others like Skye -who had pulled out his sidearm- and Sabre who concentrated ruthlessly on making every shot count. Venomian screams almost over blew the cries of the Cornerian marines and the reports of their rifles.

This bloody charge left the room quiet other than the clattering boots of the marines heading to the far side of the room. Sabre brought his paw to his ear. "Victoria, we've cleared the ball room. Which door is the exhibit room?"

His vision suddenly answered his question, his nano-suits eye contact adding a blue highlight to one of the doors at the side of the room they just stormed. "Alright, marines, this way! Follow me!" He pointed at the two closest to the door. "Get a charge on that door and prep for breach, get ready to throw down shield generators if it's an ambush." He faced the rest of them again. "Lock and load, marines! We're gettin' right back at it!"

The two by the door set up a plastic charge on it just as ordered, and the one on the left yelled out "CLEAR!" and pulled the detonator switch he was holding. The door burst out with all due fanfare, and the marines threw flashbangs, waiting for the telltale bang before running through, dropping shield generators deep enough in to allow more of the marines to pour through. They were typically greeted with more gunfire, all of the civilians to be expected were evacuated.

The two shield generators absorbed most of the damage while several more were thrown in, enough to return fire on their ambushers. Some were up in the balcony that ran all the way around the room, others even hiding behind some of the large exhibits. Skye steeled his expression when he saw their prize: the large capsule like replica of the device returned Venom back into its former glory; the capsule that contained the device that would be the doom of them all.

Volleys of blaster and gunfire were exchanged back and forth between the glowing shield cocoon and the rest of the room. Despite the effective phalanx, the Venomians were taking their toll. Not as big a toll as the Cornerians were dealing, but their enemies were quickly replacing their numbers. With ten casualties of the marines, there were only twelve left not counting Blackhook which hadn't taken a hit yet.

McCullen was behind cover with Sabre. "Sir, these generators aren't going to hold much longer."

The lion shouted back over the gunfire. "I know! We need to find a way to keep the buggers from getting reinforcements. Any ideas?"

"The only thing I can think of is collapsing the damn balcony doors... wait..." He looked over to Skye. "Hey, you, how many shots left on your cannon?!"

The snow leopard yelled back to him, leaning behind the shield generator he had placed only a few paces away. "Eight rounds, you have an idea?!"

"See if you can collapse those doors!"

"Alright, I'll give it a shot!" He took a look at his targets, there were three doorways, the roof of the exhibit center extending for far above them. Maybe if he could knock out the support above the door some of the wall will crumble... it was all stone, after all. He looked down the scope being careful not to expose himself too much. Based on the doorway he came through -and assuming the walls were the same thickness all around- the stone bricks were about four inches thick, which would be enough to effectively block the door if they fell. He aimed for the top frame of the first doorway, and fired.

There was a lot of dust, and the doorway didn't collapse, but he didn't expect it to. He aimed his second shot at the other side of the frame, and fired again. A lot more dust, and he saw cracks in the wall. A large chunk of stone fell atop one of the Venomian guards, impacting his skull and putting the poor animal out for good.

A plasma grenade would finish the job. He looked around, and noticed one of the marines with a grenade launcher attachment under his rifle. Taking a look to see if it was safe to move, he jumped out of cover, rolling beside the other marine and sharing his shield. "You, do you see the cracks above that one doorway?"

The dog looked up, squinting. "Yeah, I see them! Why?"

"I need you to pump a grenade on that spot, any concussive grenade will do!"

"Yes sir!" He flipped up the digital grenade attachment aiming display and it showed him a rough estimate of the firing arc of the grenade, and he carefully placed it so he would hit smack dab in the middle of the door frame, but a bit above it. "Here goes nothing..."

He couldn't really hear the tube-like sound over the gunfire, but Skye certainly saw the grenade trail fly through the chaos and strike above the door frame. A lot of dust kicked up, but the moment that point in the room was visible again he was gratified to find that the door was filled in with a daunting barrier of stone and the flesh of those crushed under it. "Good shot, Marine, lets do the same with the other one!"

"Tell me when!"

Skye waited before lining his rifle up again, some of the Venomians obviously took note of his handy work and were pouring on their shield. Skye watched the dial on its emitter slowly approach red. "Shit, we're about to lose our cover!" He didn't waste another second, quickly aiming down the sight and taking the shot on the other doorway. "We need another emitter over here!"

Luckily, McCullen passed him a spare just as their shield fell. Unluckily, before he could slam it to the ground to make it kick in, the marine beside him took a laser in the gut. Skye watched the life fade out of his eyes in mere seconds, no animation to him other than a smoking crater where his stomach used to be.

He didn't waste the young raccoon's sacrifice. He took the other shot, more dust, and more debris. He raised his dead comrades rifle, setting it to launch another grenade by cracking the launch tube open causing the spent shell to drop, and replacing it with one he found on the dead raccoon's belt. "Here goes nothing..." he acquainted himself with the grenade launchers display, lining up the shot before he poked out of cover.

As soon as he did, he felt a terrible impact on his shoulder, sending him reeling back behind cover again. He checked his shoulder, which looked alright. The suit was flickering like it was covered in some kind of light film, then back to normal again. His HUD lit up with a red border and matching text. _"Shields down to 48%, exercise caution." _Grunting, he swung around the corner once more, shouldering the rifle quickly and lining his shot.

He HAD heard the launcher that time, the airy "thump" that sent the small projectile towards his target with a white smoke trail behind it. Chunks of stone and metal flew across the exhibit, dust obscuring his vision again. When it settled and the combat resumed once more, the other entrance was blocked as well but for a small window in the top of the pile not even a child could squeeze through.

Sabre cheered to him. "Hell of a shot, Skye!" He made a fist and pumped it to the ground, the marines around him getting the signal. "Let's mop em up!" the lion slapped a fresh clip in his blaster MG, and kneeled above his cover, shouldering the weapon and sweeping across the balcony, making the Venomian survivors duck for cover. "**Eat laser, ****scum bags!**" he roared, and his men all followed suit. The amount of fire from the Cornerian side of the room redoubled.

It was mere moments before the skirmish was over, the last of the shield generators giving way and silence finally taking up nest in the squad's ears. Sabre jumped up from his cover and ran in front of his comrades when they were sure the room was all clear, turning to face them. "Jack, get the explosives set." he said, pointing at him. The lion then quickly turned his attention to the others. "How are we for casualties?!"

Miyu waved to him. "Captain, it's Ian! He's down!"

The colour drained out of his face as he dashed over to his fallen team mate, who he didn't even notice writhing on the floor behind a fallen pillar. He was bleeding profusely out of his left leg, and the few places where his skin was absorbed it looked ghostly white. "Damnit, Ian, talk to me! You're gonna get out of this!"

Despite his suit sealing over the wound -slowly, as it was damaged considerably- he didn't react whole heartedly. "Damn shield went down just a moment too early..." He coughed up blood, Sabre holding his head up to keep up from dribbling into the back of his throat again. "Doesn't look like I'm gonna be around for the celebrations, sir..."

"Don't talk like that, damnit! We got through this in one piece until now, don't let me down! Don't you dare quit on me!"

Despite his shouts, Ian's eyes rolled into the back of his head before Sabre even finished his sentence. Sabre shook his head, looking back to Jack. "Set charges on the device. It's time to finish this."

"Aye." He pulled off his backpack, jumping over the red fence onto the podium of the display, ripping off a chunk of the shell. Inside he found what looked like a bomb with a comm's dish on it. "Found it." A device so simple and primitive looking, with a power so advanced and deadly more so than any nuke.

McCullen did a quick headcount, and the bloodhound tapped the Captain on the shoulder. "Sir, we have six marines left of the original twenty two."

He turned around to the Lieutenant, a grim expression of solemn loss plastered on his face. He paused, looking up to his subordinate. "Let's not fuck around with the time they bought us, then."

"Hoo-ah."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Fox watched the scene envelop in horror, his long time friend not bursting out of the massive explosion. "Falco?! Falco, can you hear me?!" He made a fly by through the smoldering debris with lost hope. There was no way anything could have survived that blast.

"Fox, this is Krystal, we saw the explosion. Is everything okay?"

"No, its not okay! Falco didn't come out!!!"

Katt's voice was barely a breath, and Fox felt guilty immediately for smashing the news on her like that so suddenly."Are... are you sure?"

There was a few moments of silence.

"ALERT. ALERT. FALCO'S LIFE SIGNS DETECTED, VERY FAINT. CATASTRPOHIC DAMAGE TO THE SKY CLAW IS EVIDENT. LIFE SUPPORT HAS FAILED AND THE COCKPIT SHIELD HAS BEEN DESTROYED. LIFE EXPECTANCY IS UNDER THREE MINUTES IF NOT RECOVERED."

Fox jumped into action. "ROB, close in on his fighter immediately!"

Katt's fighter spotted the shattered Sky Claw almost immediately and tears dripped down her face when she saw him, his body was only held into the cockpit by his pilots harness, the glass shield protecting him from vacuum was completely gone.

"ALERT. SHIELD PRESENCE CONFIRMED. PILOTS COUCH EMERGENCY ENVIRONMENTAL MAGCON SHIELD HAS TRIGGERED SAFELY. LIFE EXPECTANCY INCREASED TO FIFTEEN MINUTES UNATTENDED."

Fox breathed relief. "How close are you?"

"WITHIN TRACTOR BEAM RANGE IN FIFTEEN SECONDS."

He was going to be okay... but they still had a mission to do. "Katt, take care of Falco. Get him to the infirmary and follow all of Rob's instructions to stabilize him. Me and Krystal will finish the mission. We're close enough to the planet now, take the Great Fox out of orbit as soon as you land and wait exactly an hour before returning to pick us up. Is that clear?"

There was silence in return for several seconds, until she finally answered him in a distressed whisper. She was obviously crying profusely. "...Got it, Fox... Thanks...."

"Krystal, you're on me."

"Okay."

The two fighters headed straight for the atmosphere, without another ship in their path, carrying the hopes and fears of billions.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Twenty Minutes Later**

**Skies of Androsia**

Wolf grinned as he dodged a set of rounds from his vicious pursuer, Leon. He was good, and the only made Wolf's job that much harder, but he cockily reminded the lizard who was the better pilot with each dodge. He led the vengeful reptile on an intense chase above the streets below them. He pulled a hard right around a skyscraper and saw its transparisteel windows shatter under the force of Leon's guns. He checked his radar for his teammates status, they all had at least one Wolfen under their guns but at least one behind them, too. The closest was Panther, so Wolf led the chase in his comrades general direction to get a shot at his pursuers. "Panther, I'm coming in to clean the guys off your six, pull a U-Turn on my mark and hit up Leon off my tail so I can clean a few of these bogeys out."

"Got it, boss, tell me when."

Wolf curved around one more skyscraper before he spotted Panther. He was getting chased by two of the bastards, and he didn't seem to be having nearly as easy a time as he was having with Leon... He liked to think it was easy, anyway. As he boasted to himself a bead of sweat hung on his forehead. The gave Leon enough vulnerability to follow him all day and Wolf knew it deep down.

One of the two following Panther slid into his brackets the moment he got close enough. "Do it, now."

His comrade obeyed, turning towards Wolf and making his pursuers start to make their slow loop to chase. With a side view of one, it was easy pickings. A spray of his twin lasers punched its shields, and with a couple hits the fighter turned into a fireball. Panther was then facing him, spraying lasers on Wolf's pursuer.

"Argh!" he heard Leon grunt on an open channel, rolling out of the way, and temporarily breaking off of his prey.

That gave Wolf the time he needed to wipe take aim and wipe out the other Wolfen, which was now running at him head on pouring lasers in his direction. He made a barrel roll upwards but kept facing the same way, his reticule on the fighter, which didn't react fast enough to avoid the barrage Wolf sent into his canopy. It went down without an explosion, helplessly plunging into the streets below.

"Nice shot, Wolf."

"Thanks. Now go after Leon. All aircraft report."

Dawn answered first. "I got two, but I have one on my tail that's proving a jerk to shake..."

Vince sounded like a hungry predator. "Three down. I'll get Dawn's tail, I'm clear." it didn't come as a surprise to Wolf that Vince would be on top of his game, when it came to a firefight he didn't just have his head in the moment, he practically breathed the situation around him.

After their report, that left seven enemies down, with five to go including Leon. One was on Dawn, but where was the other four?

His suspicion was answered when they rose up from the streets in a tight formation moving to support Leon. They sprayed Panther, who took a solid hit before barrel rolling off. "Fuck, they got me. Shields at 60%."

Wolf pulled a neck-wrenching turn towards his friend, seeing all four of the Wolfens go after them. Leon quickly slipped behind the lupine as if he had never left. "You can't escape me, Wolf. I'm going to burn you down!"

"You're trying my patience, lizard! Don't make me kill you any faster!" he had to dodge two more volleys coming at him from behind but he kept his focus: Panther was in deep shit, with four pursuers. He breathed relief as two of them broke off, probably to take out Vince. He watched his radar as the bat took down Dawns pursuer and both turned to go after the two that broke off. All Wolf needed to do was stay alive as he busted the ones on Panther. He slammed the boost and dove lower to put himself behind Panther's admirers, spraying them. One was caught off guard and exploded in a fireball of debris, but the other barrel rolled out of the way in the nick of time to save his own hide, turning to come with a vengeance for Wolf.

That was when his luck ran out, he felt it before he heard it: he got wailed right in the back. His cockpits alarms started going off. His shields were reading at 25%. "Mother fucker he hit me hard! Panther, help me shake this fucker off!"

Leon must have anticipated the move, because just before he finished his sentence he slid off of Wolf's tail... and sprayed an unsuspecting Panther. Wolf watched in horror as the powerful plasma cannons of the ripped into Panther's fighter, splitting it in half before it exploded. Time almost froze for him as he looped around, it took a moment before he recognized the emotion that was blinding him.

Pure, unrestrained rage.

"**Leon, you son of a _bitch_! I'm gonna hear you _scream!_" **

"Come and get me, Wolfgang O'Donnell!"

Wolf took advantage of his clear tail -other than the incompetent fighter chasing him, which would be gone soon thanks to the green blip on his radar that was Dawn- and dumped a barrage of lasers on the side of Leon, who deflected them all expertly. He looped rapidly and the fight became a head to head. More alarms went off in his fighter, but he ignored them. All that he saw was the pupils of the lizard that betrayed him. He was being shot at, but he fired as well. He felt the shudder as his lower port wing was blasted off.

He was too angry. He wouldn't have done it any other time in such a close space, but his blood screamed for vengeance. He fired a smart bomb.

He could see the expression on Leon's face when he saw the missile launch. Wolf got his wish... _Leon_ _screamed in terror. _Wolf's victim tried to pull up, but the charge slammed into his cockpit and detonated just as the Red Fang passed him. Wolf's fighter was consumed in the explosion, and he watched his shield gauge slide to zero as his fighter plummeted to the streets below.

He heard a scream on his comms; Dawn calling for him. He couldn't make out what she said over the static, but it didn't really matter to him now. Death was so close....

Suddenly, the ground stopped approaching. It was like his fighter was hovering in midair, but it slowly started descending again. "What the..."

Vince spoke to him, his message was covered in static but still barely understandable. "I have no idea, Wolf, but it looks like Dawn has some sort of field erected around your fighter. Are you okay?"

He felt his fighter touch the top of a roof, and the cockpit popped off its hinges from the impact. He pushed it off with one hand, touching his ear communicator with the other. "Yeah, I'm fine. No idea how but..."

"You're welcome, babe." it was Dawn.

Wolf, now standing beside his fighter, looked at her Wolfen circle the building he was set down on. "How did you DO that?"

"Because we're too late." she paused. "I used the power of Cerinia. Andross opened the conduit already."

"WHAT? Fox screwed up?" The colour drained out of his face. He trusted Fox to get the job done, but it was already too late.

"I'm going to make damn sure they didn't. I'll be back."

"Wait! What about me?!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Androsia Palace Exhibit Room**

Jack was just finishing setting up the demo packs, and the surviving marines and members of Blackhook patiently held a perimeter around the device until he was finished. Instead of the signal of readiness Sabre was expecting, though, Jack told him something he _really_ didn't want to hear.

"Sir... uh... this thing is turning on."

"You better not be bullshitting me, soldier." He looked up at his second in command, who was dumbstruck.

Skye nervously looked back between Jack and Sabre twice before speaking. "You're not serious?"

Time slowed as the fox stumbled off of his perch on the side of the exhibit, falling to the floor. He slowly reached his arms to his head...

_...and let out the most blood curdling scream any of them had ever heard._

_Skye, Sabre, Fay, Miyu and Janice all crowded around, putting their backs to each other. They knew what was coming next; the scream set the stage for the others following suit. After Jack, it was McCullen, and all of his marines collapsed, convulsing and emptying every ounce of air in their lungs as loud as they could._

_The first tear Sabre had shed since his time in boot camp fell to the ground, wetting the dust that had built up over the carnage. Bodies both dead and alive alike began to rise again, their skin bubbling like a pot of boiling flesh. _

_The lion watched as his former second in command began turning into a flesh eating mutant. Tears leaking down his face, he drew his side arm. His aim was true, as was his purpose._

_In that pocket of frozen time he looked back to when they met; laughing about how all of their worries of the black-ops life were over exaggerated, all of the stories the members they were replacing told them... stories of bloody battles to end such horrors as slavery and purposeless torture. None of that could have prepared him for this; the same man he would laugh with over a beer at the Rusted Anchor at the Corneria City Port District was now standing before him, his eyes glowing a sickly green and his skin covered in disgusting bloody boils, leaking a sick green pus._

_He didn't hesitate another moment, sending his old friend to the heaven he belonged with the loud crack of his blaster pistol. His companions followed suit, blasting away the half-transformed comrades. It was time to leave._

_Sabre couldn't put a finger on what he was feeling as they kicked up their heels. Some kind of mixture of pain, rage and blame. They tried so hard, got so far, only to learn that Fox had failed. Andross became invincible, and now the entire system was going to turn into a cesspit of drooling cannibal zombies._

_The Lylatians were going to fall into extinction._

_Their rifles roared as they ran across the courtyard towards their abandoned dropship, Venomian and Cornerian zombies alike rising from the ground and stumbling towards them. Their flesh exploded with splatters of a sickly green and red mixture of blood and pus as they were riddled with lasers. They emptied the last of their clips jumping onto the dropship, Fay getting right to work on the controls to get them into the air. Skye yelled something into his communicator that Sabre couldn't make out over their stream of fire._

_The Indignation finally moved from its resting place over the city to head to orbit. It was going to flee to their only safe haven and regroup. It was their only option now._

_Sabre, and the rest of Blackhook wept for their fallen, Skye and Janice wearing a solemn expression of regret...._

_ and fear._


	21. Chapter 20: The Agent of Fate

**Chapter 20: The Agent of Fate**

**August 14th, 4:46 Lylat Standard Time**

**Venom High Orbit**

**Fourteen Minutes before Conduit Activation**

"It all comes down to this." Fox whispered.

The Arwing II and the Cloudrunner erupted in flame as they dove into Venom's atmosphere. There wasn't a speck of resistance left, and they were directly above the tunnel that would lead them to the core. The same tunnel he traversed eighteen years ago.

The same tunnel where he _thought_ he had killed the maniacal Andross.

Rather than putting his fears aside, they only built up stronger within him every time he saw the green blip that was Krystal close behind him. A couple of times on their flight he almost let it become anger.

"Still no convincing you to let me do this alone?"

"I'm not leaving you."

He already knew that was exactly she was going to say. For the first time since he got her back, he understood why he asked her to leave over Kew almost six years ago. He loved her more than anything, but that made her a viability. A distraction. Her presence was a threat to their success and she knew it; but still she came. Was it stubbornness? No. She loved him, and he loved her in return. Ultimately, she was right; the risk was worth going through this together. That optimism didn't satisfy the pit of worry in his gut, though.

He sighed in vexation, pulling up when they were only a few hundred meters above the ground, the two skirted across the perfectly flat planes surrounding the entrance. They weren't the same wastes he flew the warpath over eighteen years ago; rather they were a lush plain that reminded him of Corneria... of home. They were on the daytime side of the planet, the decievingly warm light showing him the path to his final confrontation innocently.

It was only several moments later they found the accursed wart that was the tunnel entrance. It was exactly as he left it. A golden dome adorned with ornamentations and strange writing, with a hole facing towards the stars more than large enough to fit both of their Arwings.

"Here we are. Are you ready, Fox?" his love asked him.

"I was ready for this ever since that bastard killed my parents." He pulled into a loop, Krystal following suit on his tail. Upon completing it he was facing the gaping maw of the planet, the throat of Venom itself.

"This is for you, Dad."

The darkness swallowed the two fighters whole, and it took several seconds for his eyes to adjust to the decreased light. His Arwing's bow spotlight activated on its own, amply filling the tunnel with light as far as a couple of hundred meters ahead of them.

Krystal scoffed. "You would think the pig would have the courtesy to leave the lights on..."

Fox stayed silent. He was in his combat zen; it was just him, the tunnel, and the two green blips that were himself and his love. The reflection stopped; the seemingly endless tunnel granting him no opinion of success. Just the slow trickle of adrenaline into his blood. He almost jumped when his comms sparkled to life.

"Ahh, the son of James McCloud...."

Fox bared his fangs. He still didn't completley believe Andross could have returned, but hearing the madmans voice with his own ears finally put the uncertainty in his heart to rest. "Your first words to me, how could I forget? I thought they were one of your last, too. My mistake."

"You will find that will be one of your final mistakes, Fox. Not even you and your ragtag gang can stop me this time."

Fox decided to play mind games of his own. "I hope you're ready to make due on your threat, Andross, because every time in the past it was far too easy..."

He ape kept quiet, Fox saw fit to finish. "The only legacy you left behind was the story that made me and my team famous. Did you hear? The biggest paychecks I ever got were from stopping you. All you managed to do was fill my bank account. What are you trying to accomplish this time, putting me into early retirement?"

Fox waited patiently for a response, but when he recieved his answer, he wished he kept his mouth shut. "On the contrary, my legacy remains unscathed. Venom stands, the portal to Cerinia stands, my Grandson gained enough power for me to return with, and my prime amplifier remains standing. Even now I can still feel the link to it... your friends are far too late. By the time I am done with you, they will arrive in time only to be turned into my slobbering thralls."

"Guess I'm going to have to take you down quick then, huh?"

The two Arwings burst into the core chamber that invaded the vulpines nightmares for eighteen years. It made just as little sense as it did before; the...walls... were just random splashes of colour that shifted rapidly like some kind of psychidelic abstract art. He almost expected too see the giant head and hands right away... but all the two vulpines saw was a small platform in the center of the expanse. He could practically smell his target standing ontop of it, beside his grandson Dash, and infront of what looked like a giant ring standing up on its side.

He should have seen it coming. He should have been ready. His bloodlust made him completely ignore the possibilty that he wouldn't just stand there in the open while Fox burned him down. As suddenly as he entered, he was jarred to a stop. Some kind of bright blue net of beams was holding his fighter in place. He quickly checked his radar, Krystal was in the same perdicament.

"Fox, I'm stuck! I can't break free!"

The old apes laughing, like a sick symphony from a composer left only with the grief of witnessing a million deaths, filled his ears. "So naive you are, child. Now that I have you sitting still like a good kit, its time to begin the ritual."

The colour sank from his face. He was so close, yet so far. Everyone was fighting on the other side of the planet to give him this chance, and he threw it away. Walked right into a trap.

A shadow, like some great black hand extended from the platform Andross stood upon and gripped Krystals fighter. He had no idea how loud he roared, screaming for vengeance. "_**Put her down, you overgrown maggot! I'll tear your eyes out, I'll-**_"

**  
"SILENCE!"** the ape roared. He had no idea how, but he was forced to obey, it must have been the amplifier... he was immune at long range, but now he was too close.

Krystal cried to him.. and he was forced to watch as the Cloud Runner opened its canopy freely, his love being taken by the shadow. She disapeared amongst the black tendrils which contracted back to the platform. "Fox! No! Help me!"

The rage in Fox only got worse with every word from Andross. "How stubborn she is... you know of what I speak. Told her to stay, you did. Did she listen? No... now every one of you are going to pay with your lives."

"Fox... I'm so sorry..."

He zoned out. There was nothing he could do. He had lost. Lylat had lost. Every single one of them was going to die. His surroundings turned to haze as the fear and rage inside him threatened to tear him apart. He saw the ring -the conduit, Andross had called it- light up, its expanse filled with a blue light. The ape turned, raising his arms as though welcoming a long lost child home.

_Never give up, trust your instincts!_

He heard it. It was the same as before. The haze blocking his vision cleared instantly; his body was his own again. "This one's for you, dad." His mind chugged back up to pace, adrenaline coursing through him. "Blue beams. Ion net. Can be dissipated by a magnetic pulse... but..."

_"DO A BARREL ROLL!"_

_Of course!_ The Arwing two created a localized magnetic field when it barrel rolled, as a more modernized way to deflect beam weapons. He tried, tilting his fighter hard to starboard, the fighter barely moved. He kicked the G-Diffuser into overdrive, swinging the fighter back and forth...

He watched the shadow holding Krystal, it was squeezing something out of her... some kind of blue dust. He knew he didn't have long. The Arwing budged harder and harder as his diagnostic board lit up with successful released of an opposing magnetic force. The net started to flicker.

_"Just a little more..."_ He saw the ape carry Krystal through the portal, Dash collapsing to the ground the moment his grandfather was absent. He was out of time. He needed to break free.

And break free he did.

The Arwing made a complete roll, shattering the hold the energy net had on him. It was mere milliseconds of reaction time before his foot was on the boost pedal, sending him crushed into the back of his seat from the acceleration, his G-Diffuser whining in protest. The blue ring, Andross' last invention, swallowed his fighter whole.

_Into the breach, once more._

_**???????**_

_He didn't have a moment to act, as soon as he was through, the head and hands he was looking for found him first. He didn't even get to see his surroundings before he sent himself into a barrel roll to get the hell out of the way. Wherever they were, it was like an endless rolling plain dotted with trees, a parardise... being torn apart by a wicked storm. The clouds swirled towards the portal in the sky he had just bottomed out of. He pulled out of his dive immediately, just barely outrunning another swing by the giant hand._

_He could hear the wicked laughing as his lasers pinged off his seemingly invincible face. Unlike the fleshy head he appeared to be before, he almost looked completely molded out of some kind of purple crystal. His eyes glowed white, teeming with the power of Cerinia. _

_The hands swatted at him a second time, he flew straight up to escape the first, then cut his engines, freefalling downwards and watching the second fist overshoot him. He kicked his thrusters in again, going for a head to head against his assailant. His aiming reticule darted around desperately seeking a target in the thick rain. It flashed red over the bright probe in the palm of his hand; the same weakness he explosed again and again. He went all out with his hyper lasers, but to no avail. Pulling out of his dive bomb and getting a close look a the hand as he passed, he didn't appear to do any damage._

_He checked his radar for some sort of hint; some sort of indication where he should shoot. Instead, his own green dot was joined by several others appearing from the portal...a standard Wolfen that appeared to belong to Dawn...Skye's Assassin appeared right behind her... the Ranger, Janice's Arwing... Vince... Fay... Katt -he swore he could have told her to run-... Slippy's Bullfrog... Amandas Tadpole... he even spotted Bill Grey's customized Cornerian fighter, but the last one he never could have been prepared for. An assault class Arwing dropped through the portal as well, the IFF tag belonging to Peppy._

_His godfather spoke to him. "We're here to help, Fox, this is Lylat's fight... not yours to fight alone."_

_"Peppy... Everyone..."_

_Andross flailed wildly trying to knock the intruders out of the air. Not one gave way to his attacks, and even Fox could begin to see the panic in his eyes._

_"Thank you."_

_He grouped up with three other fighters to try to knock out the hand again. No words were required between them... their intentions flowed through him like an open book. Four sets of lasers punched the hand, making it detonate. Even through his canopy and the open air Fox could hear the blood curtling scream of his foe. He was losing again._

_Two green dots flickered out of the air when his other hand struck to retaliate... Slippy and Katt winked off his radar without fanfare. He couldn't worry about it now. He was still alive, and he would fight until the end. _

_He recognized Andross' next move. His massive jaw agape, the winds changed direction to him. He was sucking in everything. Trees were uprooted from the ground, chunks of land... and their fighters. Fay was the unfortunate victim, disapearing into his gaping maw forever. His jaw shut, and he chewed his food. Fox winced in empathy for his friend._

_He warned everyone else with his thoughts what was coming next._

_His jaw flew open again, chunks of debris flying at insane velocities. A pit grew in Fox's stomach when he saw three more explosions from chunks of land slamming into the fighters. He had to barrel roll out of the way of a tree himself. Checking his radar, Skye, Vince and Bill were no longer on the map. He gritted his teeth. Heroes were dropping like flies._

_It was time to hit the other hand. Three fighters formed up with him again once the storm settled, but Andross decided to play keep away, anticipating their move. The fist flew towards them again, only two of them reacted fast enough. Two more green dots vanished... Amanda and Janice._

_That left Katt, Peppy and Dawn. They needed four to destroy the other hand and they knew it. Despite the risks, they grouped together again before the last hand finished its swing, as soon as Andross let his fist open, they poured out on it. The hand was torn apart by the sustained fire, leaving Andross vulnerable._

_Not even Fox anticipated his next move. The glowing eyes suddenly emitted deadly beams, tearing up the landscape below. Dawn and Katt were pulverised._

_Him and Peppy split up, emptying out on the now vulnerable head. Chunks of the purple crystal were torn out of his face, detonating upon release. His only comrade left was consumed by the bursting sections of his arch-rival._

_He was alone again. His lasers roared with relentless fury, taking the mad scientist apart. Almost dead... almost dead..._

_Then his own fighter shuddered. He heard alarms, his cockpit electronics shut down, the canopy began to crack._

_"Is this how it ends?"_

_....._

_He was awake again. He lay upon a grassy meadow, the grass was red. Red with his blood. He saw the gashes in his arms, and it hurt terribly to move. He couldn't hear his own scream. Had he gone deaf?_

_He looked up, the giant head was still there. It was looking down at him, the jaw and one eye still mostly intact but mostly damaged beyond repair. He was a freak showm hungrily looking down to the innocent Fox._

_A new set of lasers punched into its face. Did he have a friend again?_

_"Don't ever give up, my son."_

_He yelled up to the Arwing dancing around Andross. "Father!" he cried helplessly. He mustered all of the strength he could, and found he could stand. His wounds healed up, and it didnt hurt to move. His Arwing however was beyond repair, in ruins and three seperate pieces scattered across the meadow behind him._

_All he had left was his staff, the crystal on which was growing brightly. It was already extended, stuck in the dirt beside him. He ripped it out, pointing it at his arch-nemesis and roaring. _

_James gave him the chance he needed. A smart bomb exploded, dropping debris from the injured Andross all around him but luck was still on his side, none of it crushing him. The head slammed into the ground but was still moving, it was only a couple of hundred meters away from him. Staff in hand, Fox ran as hard as he could. He moved far quicker than normal. Every step sent him flying forward._

_As though by instinct, he stabbed his staff into the ground mid step and he was propelled mid air, landing ontop of Andross, in a crater his lasers had left. The lasers from his eyes fired as the head took to the air again. Fox kept grip by holding onto a tuft of the massive creatures hair that was still in place._

_He couldn't stop. He climbed. Up he went, one hand after the other. The head swung around rapidly and it was hard to keep his grip. His father didn't fire, only dodged Andross' relentless assault, he was waiting for Fox to deal the final blow._

_He was ontop. Despite the head swinging around he didn't need to hold grip anymore. His balance was perfect. His stance, his resolve; all for this moment. He didn't know what it would do, only that he had to. He stabbed the staff downwards as though planting Lylats flag atop the highest, most challenging mountain._

_"You've become so strong, Fox."_

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

_"Can't I escape the beeping, even in death?"_

No. He wasn't dead. If he heard the beeping he was in his room on the Great Fox. Or was he? No, he was lying on grass, not his bed.

He creaked his eyes open, it didn't even hurt. Hell, he didn't even feel tired. His vision was filled with a spectacular view of the stars; but he couldn't absorb the view yet. He needed to find the damn beeping first.

It was coming from his belt. His arms, with no sign of the injuries he had sustained in the battle, didn't hurt when he reached for it. It was his persa-com, and it was lighting up with a call.

It was from Krystal. Turning it on, he put it to his ear. "Krys?"

"Fox! Thank god you're alright, I've been trying to call for half an hour! When Andross took me I fell unconcious but I woke up.. and... I don't know, where are we?"

"I don't know..." He finally took the chance to look around at his surroundings. He was in the middle of an evergreen forest, in a clearing. The night was illuminated by a fire not far away. "I see a camp fire, is that yours?"

"A camp fire..? Oh no, if I can't see a fire we must be miles away from eachother! Our communicators aren't working properly. I have no idea where you are."

He stumbled towards it; his legs felt like he hadn't used them in days. It took him a few moments to realize they had been asleep; he must have been laying down wrong. _"better than both being broken."_ he thought to himself. That was when the confusion hit. What happened? He just got out of the battle with Andross... He saw everyone die. When he stuck his staff into Andross...

Where was his staff? He checked his belt where he usually hung it, but it wasn't there.

Maybe it was a dream. "Krystal, do you remember the staff you made for me?"

"Of course I do, why? Did something happen to it?"

"... No, it's nothing. I'll explain later."

"How am I going to find you?"

"Let me investigate this fire, if its on its own, maybe i can cook it up a little, make it more of a signal for you."

"I guess thats a better plan than any..." He made his way through to the clearing, was someone there that could help? Maybe it was someone stranded like he was? Maybe someone else survived the battle?

As he pushed his way through the last bush, what he saw filled him with rage.

It was Andross, sitting on a log staring into the blaze. The old ape looked at him solemly.

"Come to finish the job, have you?"

Fox couldn't help but feel pity, despite everything that had happened. There wasn't even a hint of begging, or fear in his voice. He spoke as one who had completely submitted to his fate. Fox reached for his blaster, and found that it wasnt there regardless.

Taking the Fox's silence as a no, he took the liberty to speak. "Well, if you're not in a rush, take a seat. I imagine you have some questions for me."

The old man was right, he did. He sat on the log as if he was meeting Andross as a stranger for the first time, sitting on a park bench. It was ridiculous really, but he saw no reason to rush the apes death. Not yet.

"Let's get the obvious one out of the way." the elder said.

"Where am I?"

The old man chuckled. "How I am so easily defeated by such a simpleton..." his chuckle turned to a sigh. "We are on, as you may have suspected, Cerinia. This is an image, saved in time, of the world before it was turned into a wasteland by whatever terrible war that could wrought such devastation."

"Are there any Cerinians here?"

"Yes, and they have been hunting me ruthlessly. The only function I have managed to get out of my nearly destroyed amplifier is blocking out telepathic signals, ironically. This is the reason your woman has not been able to find us yet."

"What about the battle? What happened?"

"Ah, that. You see, we didn't even really do battle. Not in a physical sense. All of that was, basically, a projected dream. I had made some... errors... in my calculations, and the amplifier overloaded. While I gained all the power I wished, it was only in a subconcious sense... all I fought was your mind. I would have destroyed you if all had gone to plan, but your subconcious mind brought about images of all of your friends which destroyed me, and the amplifier. For the entire battle I was just as asleep as you just were. The Cerinians probably recovered your fighter."

"Wait, so none of my friends are dead?"

"No, infact, the only ones here are you and Krystal. I believe a couple more have just arrived as well, but I can't tell thanks to the destruction of my device."

"I see..."

Fox looked into the fire. Here he was, having a debrief chat with the man he just swore to kill. "So, what happens now?"

"I imagine your friends will come and find you, if the Cerinians don't find us first, in which case they will kill me on the spot and probably take you to James."

"James? My father is here?"

"Well, yes. Of course. I watched as the bastard pulled you out of my grasp eighteen years ago. You see, I never mentioned it in my log, but I later hypothesized that when he escaped my grasp, he didn't translocate in a standard sense; rather he warped into this image of Cerinia. He created his own conduit out of sheer luck. Chances are he is probably still here, living out the last of his days amongst his new Cerinian friends."

"One more question."

"Go ahead..."

"Why?"

Andross reeled back, turning his gaze to the stars. It was the question he was both most prepared and least prepared to answer. Their thoughts were interupted as an Arwing shot overhead, illuminated by its exterior lights. The spotlight was scowering the ground. His communicator buzzed again. "Fox! I see you down there!... but, is that... is that Andross?"

"We were just having a friendly chat, hows the view up there?"

"What the... Fox, I'm coming down."

"Okay." He turned his attention back to Andross. "Well?"

"There is many answers I could give you, McCloud, but let me ask you... Would an answer satisfy you? Would knowing why I did what I did make your justice any sweeter?"

Even more than Fox's question had disarmed the elder, Andross' completely caught Fox by suprise. Not once did he think about it. All he ever desired was revenge for his fathers death. Ever since Peppy, with a shaking hand, told Fox the news making the young kit burst to tears, it was all Fox ever wanted. He wanted to see Andross die. Did he question what Andross' motives were? Sure, plenty of times.

Not once did he ever think about whether he cared about Andross' true ambitions. If no one he knew was injured, would he ever have cared at all? Was justice truly his motive all these years?

"No, I suppose it wouldn't."

Andross smiled. It wasn't the sick, deranged smile of a mad scientist, but one who was accepting of what life had dealt him. Fox found it hard to believe that such a kind smile could have been buried under all of the animal's hatred. "Then, at least, I can have that much peace."

"One more question, though." He could hear crackles in the forest only a hundred meters away, Krystal must have been running for him.

"Hmm?"

"Why are me and my friends immune to the effects of the amplifier?"

"Ahh..." Andross shook his head. "Of all the mysteries in Lylat, McCloud, that is the one I could never crack. As a scientist, the only thing I ever feared were uncrackable mysteries. Uncrackable mysteries like you and your gang."

"You really don't know?"

"Perhaps you should ask your father, when he arrives."

Krystal burst through the bushes, pointing her blaster at the madman. "Hands in the air! Release him, you monster!"

Fox turned around. "Wait! Krystal, he surrendered, don't worry. I was just getting some answers." It seemed to calm her down, but she was still on end. Maybe she was a bit more sane than him, remembering the threat the doctor posed and everything he had done; or maybe he was the sane one, knowing that the man was nothing more of a husk of the danger he used to be. Either way, Krystal did look very uptight. She kept her blaster pointing anyway. Fox stood, walking beside her casually. "Here, give it to me."

She was confused. She couldn't sense his mind and had no idea if Andross had control... but she trusted him regardless. She handed over the blaster.

Fox checked the charge, walked over to the ape, and pressed it against the back of his head. "Any last words?"

"Just a question. For you, this time."

"And?"

"If you had to guess as to why you were immune to the effects of the amplifier, what would you say?"

"Hmm..." he took the time and really though about it, not sure why he was doing the doctor the favour.

He came up with his answer. "Because I don't think it was designed to affect Cerinians."

_"What? _You don't mean..."

Rather than fire the blaster, Fox decided to put the old man out of his misery with a reminder of the terror he had inflicted... Fox's prosthetic leg. "Remember that one research station you led us to? With the mutants crawling around it?"

"Of course I do, so sorry about your le-"

He never finished his sentence. Fox lifted his prosthetic leg, and jammed his heel down into the old mans spine as hard as he could. All three heard the excessively loud _CRUNCH_, immediately followed by a howl of pain from the doctor, who collapsed, limp, in the fire. Just to shut up the screaming from the now paralyzed and burning scientist, Fox lifted the blaster again.

_Crack._ The laser found homage in the back of the apes head. Thousands of lives were finally avenged. The two vixens found homage in silence.

For a few seconds, anyway. A voice yelled at them from behind. Turning around, Fox couldn't hear where it came from. "_0ei! Thef 0eih noufed udt 0ei nacc dek ro xuhmot!"_

Fox whipped around and looked at Krystal, she whispered to him. "He said put down your gun, and he won't hurt us." He complied immediately.

Krystal tried yelling into the blackness. "Nxe uho 0ei?!"

Fox felt an impact on the back of his head, and the last thing he saw was Krystal falling beside him.

* * *

**The Next Morning**

He groaned, this time with the pain he expected from an impact like he recieved the previous night. He wondered what was with Cerinians and taking prisoners unconcious from a hit to the head; Skye told him about how they did the same to him on the abandoned colony.

He took note of his surroundings, his head aching as he forced his eyes open. He was in some sort of log cabin as far as he could tell from the roof and the wall he was facing. He was lying on an... odd feeling bed. Some kind of primitive animal fur.

_Hopefully_ primitive animal, anyway.

He flipped around, facing bulk of the room. His eyes took a minute to adjust to the strong morning light. When they did, he saw that someone was waiting for him there. Waiting for him to wake up. He thanked his stars, they had brown fur. Hopefully they could understand him.

"Hello?"

The figure jolted upright, they must have dozed off. When he spun around, Fox's jaw went agape. It was his dad.

"Good morning, Fox."

"DAD!" He tried to leap out of bed, but he was way too sore. He reached his arm out as though he could catch the man that faded into his memories for so long. Oddly, he didn't know how to react. Just like chasing Andross, he was like a dog chasing a bus. He didn't know what he would do if he actually caught one, but he chased them on anyway. Now he was here, reunited with his father. Was it a dream?

"No, it's not a dream."

"_Damn, it has to be a dream._" he thought to himself. _"I didn't say that out loud."_

"I'm a telepath, Fox. You were right... Your guess was spot on."

Fox was out of breath with bewilderment. "You mean..."

"Your grandfather, and your mother, were both Cerinians. I also happen to know that most of your friends are closely descended from them, too. Hell, Slippy Toad's grandfather lives in this very village."

"Really? But..."

"Andross tried so hard to tear open the conduit, to get here... when all he really needed was the right key to get here all along... I'ts ironic, really. If he knew the true nature of Cerinia, we may have all been doomed before you were even born. Yet, despite his continued failure to understand what we are, he still managed to almost cause a catastrophy. None of us saw his entry coming; it's a good thing you followed him through and stopped him in time." His voice boomed in Fox's ears, it was like the old man hadn't aged a day. He still remembered his voice exactly as it was the week before he left... and was captured by Andross.

"I love you, Dad." It was all he could say.

"I love you too, son." he paused. "I felt so bad, Fox... I watched from afar all of these years as you became a hero. I could have stopped it at any time... intervened and killed Andross... but it was always our mandate to watch from afar as Lylat grew. I watched you grow into a hero. Do you know what Lylat is?"

"The system? What do you mean?"

"I think it's about time I told you about Cerinia."

"Okay."

The elder Fox sat beside his son. "What do you know about the age of Humans?"

"The humans? Not a lot... just that we evolved from them over a thousand years ago."

"That's only half right. About three thousand years ago, this system's only inhabitable planet was Cerinia, which you now call Venom. The primitive Cerinians were a peaceful race that avoided developing technology, for they had everything they needed to survive with their rare gift of telepathy. They lived as hunters and gatherers, revered their gods, and lived in serenty... and still do to this day... at least, before the Humans came."

"What happened?"

"The Humans were a terrifying race bent on claiming every livable planet for their own so they could support their massive civilizations. One of their scout ships found Cerinia, and dismissed the fact that a primitive sentient race existed on it. They tried to set up colonies, and at first were accepted by their furred hosts... until the pollution started."

James rolled his neck before continuing, getting comfortable. "The Cerinians rejected what the Humans were doing, dumping garbage and wastes into their oceans and cutting down their forests. They rebelled, destroying human colonies and stealing their weapons. Before long, human military fleets were sent to lock down the planet."

"They must not have known about their telepathy."

"Exactly. The entire fleet was taken by suprise and turned to serve the vengeful Cerinians. All they wanted to do was defend their home, and they did so valiantly, using the stolen vessels to fight off Human ships that came. As long as the Cerinians had the advantage of being able to read the Humans' minds, not a single Cerinian ship was lost. They would have been forced to leave, until they came up with a new plan."

"Fight fire with fire."

"Exactly. Using captured Cerinians as a blueprint, they created a DNA strand that they would inject into a human to gain a Cerinians powers. Rather than gain the telepathy they sought, they were turned into human and animal hybrids. They were called the Lylatians."

"You don't mean..."

"Yes."

"What happened to the humans?"

"The Lylatian DNA strand proved to be quite contageous, and started infecting their civilizations by the millions, and eventually the billions. Civil wars burned away billions of lives, fueled by racial bigotry and fear of change, all the while they still never really gained the means to fight the Cerinians. In a desperate act of revenge, surviving humans launched obsene numbers of nuclear warheads to completely turn Cerinia to dust. Their own form of justice."

"And it became Venom..."

"Exactly. They managed to destroy Cerinia and all of their core worlds in the devestating conflict, and for all we know, the Human race is now completely extinct. The Cerinians on the surface of the planet at the time of the bombing pooled their power to create a temporal image of Cerinia, hiding it in a cross-dimensional conduit, the entrance to which they hid in the core of Venom. That image is where we are now."

"What about the rest of the Cerinians?"

"The Lylatians that survived the human civil war, no longer having any planets to inhabit, resorted to terraforming planets... They used a device called the Alpha Warhead. No one knows how it worked, but they apparently fired this weapon at Solar, causing a reaction to all surrounding planets -other than the radiation crushed Venom- to begin a state of Genesis. Corneria, Katina, Aquas, Zoness and Macbeth all reacted favourably, and the Lylatians began their new civilzation in what became the Lylat System, the leftover residue from the warhead creating the X,Y and Z nebulas."

"That's so tragic..." Suddenly, the younger looked at his father puzzledly. "But what about the Cerinians that _weren't _on the surface?"

"They went into hiding for three thousand years... only occasionally leaving their space station in times of dire need, when their gene pool needed to be polluted by Lylatian DNA for their own survival."

"That's how you were born?"

"Yes. Myself, Beltino, Wolfgang... the list goes on."

"So that's why we were immune to the amplifier..."

"Exactly. It was never designed as a weapon, you know. It was actually the device used to make this temporal image so Cerinia could live on."

Fox just stared at his father, blank in the face, causing the elder to chuckle. He patted his son on the back "Are you okay?"

He hesitated. "Well, I just had my very existence explained to me in a matter of minutes, and I think I have a concussion."

James laughed full out, putting an arm around his son and giving him a noogie. "I'm damn proud of you, boy. I'm proud of what you've accomplished. Everything."

Thinking of accomplishments sent his thoughts back to his love. "Is Krystal okay?"

"Yes, she just had all of this explained to her by the village chief... She was a... special circumstance."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you see, when the temporal image of Cerinia was created, some Cerinians were trying to escape the planet at the time. Their ships were caught in the temporal rift... some still appearing in Lylat today as if the whole Lylatian war happened yesterday with their memories irrevertably damaged by being in temporal stasis for so many centuries."

"Krystal was one of them?"

"Yes."

"I bet she took that hard."

"No doubt. Wanna go see her?"

"Okay." They stood together, and James led them out of the small cabin; only then did he notice how he was dressed. He was in a Cerinian loincloth. Somehow he could never see his father dressed like that, and it took a moment for him to adjust to how ridiculous it looked; but it was nothing compared to everything he just heard.

Blue furred animals of every species occupied the small village, which he could see end to end with a twist of his neck. In reality, he was turning around looking for Krystal, more difficult to spot now that she was amongst those with her.

Doubtless, she had spotted him first. "Fox!" his lover came from practically nowhere, tackling him to the ground, their lips meeting passionately.

The older blur furred feline behind her yelped after her. "Be careful, Krystal, remember that your stomach is not only your own, now!"

The comment made Fox freeze. "What?" he whispered, she kissed him again.

"Fox... I'm pregnant."

That finished him off. He wakes up to find his father, find out the history of his species in five minutes, then walks out to a place that only exists in his wildest fantasies to find out that Krystal was pregnant. His heart couldn't take it anymore. "Are.. Are you serious?!"

"Yes!" She was positively glowing.

"I don't... I don't know what to..."

He was interupted by James extending his arms to them. "Get up, you two. You have a cerimony to attend to."

Fox took his hand, Krystal his other, and they were hoisted up. Fox shook his head wildly, trying to shake the shear magnitude of everything he was hearing out of his ears so he could concentrate. "What do you mean, cerimony? What cerimony?"

Krystal answered for him. "Remember when I was telling you about Cerinian customs on how they... we... deal with mating?"

"Uhm..." then he remembered. They didn't have marriage in a tradtional sense, rather, they were bonded the moment....

The moment she was impregnated.

"We're about to be married?" he was quickly kicking himself with how blunt he said it.

"I know it's sudden but..." She almost looked dissapointed. Had he insulted her?

"No! I'ts not that!" Fox leaned in and kissed her again. "This is just a lot for me to compute so fast."

She giggled again, pulling him in closer. She whispered in his ear. "We're going to have twins...."

"Twins?!" he bellowed. "No way."

The day seemed only that much brighter from that point forward. The beautiful light of the three thousand year old copy of Solar felt like a spotlight on his day.... on his whole life. Maybe things could have a happy ending after all.

"We need to postpone this."

"What? Why?"

He had heard the engines, three fighters skyrocketed above through the sky. He recognized them as Dawn's Wolfen, Skye's Assassin and Janice's Ranger.

"Because, love." the fighters above must have spotted them, because slowed and started into a loop to land. He asked himself whether the day could be any more perfect; the pain he felt the night previous only a dream... the images of all of his friends dying to fight his battle, all an illusion. Now, here he was with everything he could have ever wanted. The spoils of war; his prizes for all of his suffering... he looked at his leg... and his victories... he placed a paw on Krystal's stomach.

"I want everyone to be there."

She positively beamed at him. "Of course! We have to invite _everyone._" She spun around, trailing off with a finger to her lip counting off people in her head. "We should call Beltino, we _definitely _need to call Slippy and Amanda... We should see if Wolf, wants to come too... and..."

As she trailed off, Fox looked to the rising sun to the west. The first day of the rest of his life. James stepped beside him, wrapping an arm around his son... soon to be a father himself.

"What'ya gonna do now, big guy?" James said.

"I think it's about time I got out of this business. Gotta buy a house, and raise these kids right."

"Good man."

"Oh yeah... Dad..." James looked at him, puzzled, as Fox fumbled with his belt. He found the pouch he was looking for, and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. "These belong to you."

He took one look at them. "No, Fox." he pushed them back. "You're gonna need those when your own children need something to remember you by."

Looking down at them, Fox flipped them open, and put them on. They didn't feel heavy anymore; as with his fathers blessing the responsibility and expectation that came with them was alleviated.

James, the exact same height as his son, looked at him straight on. "I'm so god damn proud of you, Fox. I'll never say it enough. Those shades fit you perfect." he paused, his expression turning one to guilt. "I need you to promise me something, Fox."

"Hmm?"

"Don't make the same mistakes I did. Be there for your children. Be there for your _wife._ Watch your kids grow up, and live with your family and die old. Alright? Do you promise?"

Despite being his roughly thrown together plan from the start, Fox was taken aback by the proposal. It didn't occur to him that from this point forward, it was his responsibility to the family he was about to start to never fight again. Even when the system was in danger, it was no longer his place to intervene... his only mandate now was the angel that was Krystal, and the two little ones she carried with her.

He looked to the sun, it heralding the start of his new life, and the view of a gorgeous natural landscape, evergreen forests on rolling hills as far as the eye could see. He finally remembered the question he wanted to ask since the very beginning of the suspicions of his fathers survival. "Are you coming back with us?"

James sighed, looping his arm around his boy's shoulder again. "I'll stay for the wedding, but my place is here, son. Remember; to Lylat, I'm a dead hero, and I have to stay that way. Out there is your world now, your life... and eventually your children's world."

His words hung on the wind. "Their lives."

They must have stood there for hours, father and son. All the words they ever needed were already spoken; all there was to do now was enjoy the moment.

After all, his next few months... nay, years... were going to be _very_ busy... and for once, with his own life, rather than the fears and hopes of billions.

_The End_

* * *

**Epilogue**

The McCloud wedding turns out to be one of the biggest events of the post-war celebrations; it was all over the news. Everyone involved with the final battle on Venom -both directly, and indirectly- was there. Falco and Katt showed up, Skye and Janice showed up, Wolf, Dawn, Vince, Fay and Drake showed up, Beltino showed up, Sabre and Miyu showed up (arm in arm), and James did as well; although he went disgused despite Fox's protests. Falco, and Wolf, now becoming close friends, did a dual proposal during Fox's wedding as a joke; Falco proposing to Katt and Wolf proposing to Dawn. They both accept, the former more certainly more emotional then the latter. Slippy and Amanda were the only big players that didn't show up, as Amanda went into labour only an hour before the cerimony. The McCloud family purchased a gorgeous beach property with the massive payoff from selling the Great Fox II and their Arwings to the Cornerian Museum of Aerospace History, where they plan to raise the children. Krystal stays at home, furiously studying up on pregnancy, while Fox takes up a job as a flight instructor at the Cornerian Flight Academy, where he is recieved warmly and without a moments hesitation. Nine months later, Krystal has her twins, a blue furred boy they name Marcus, and a brown furred girl they name Marie. The two grow to be strong, healthy children.

Skye and Janice reinstate their vows in a private cerimony only involving the members of the Scarlet Hand, as they did before. Victoria shows up as well, having been reuinited with her body as Skye had promised her. The only one that doesn't, mysteriously, is Vince, who disapears completely at the end of the war, never to be seen again. Skye and Janice lay down their weapons permanently, and buy a farm on Corneria, "coincidentally" near the McClouds. Skye is invited to teach at the Cornerian University of Aerospace Science, and accepts. He also stays in touch with Slippy Toad, the two making extra money on the side selling technological advances they make together to the Cornerian Military; but vowing never to help develop a new generation of Arwings for them. They eventually have a child, a boy they name Aryn, who turns out to be just as much a genius as his father... but as good a fighter, is yet to be seen.

Falco recovers from his injuries with little more than a few broken bones and cuts. Him and Katt get married only months after the McClouds, and Falco discovers something very suddenly; that Katt was not only pregnant, but she had been since the first night they made love on the Great Fox II and she never came out and told him. In a panic, realizing their pairing made no genetic sense, they run to Beltino Toad, who calls upon unproven research to genetically modify their child so completely that Falco's genes are almost completley erased. The result ending up as a beautiful baby feline boy with blue fur. They name him Jordan, after Lombardi's great grandfather that started their family crime business. Only two years after Jordan's birth, they have a second child; Slippy helps them program the baby's genes with plenty of time to spare, allowing more of the avian to show in their child; the result is an amazing baby girl, who is mostly a pink furred feline if not for a pair of angelic wings. They name her Amy. The Lombardi family starts up a Private Mercenary Corporation based on Katina, which becomes the first call for all unsavoury problems, from dealing wth pirates to just harmless escort missions. They strike it rich and live happily.

Wolf and Dawn, despite Wolf's promise to the Cornerian governement to live an honest life (an agreement they let him off with after Peppy's appeal to his release), run off to Kew to immediately to take advantage of the power vaccuum left by the death of Jim Draigan. Wolf quickly becomes an influential crime boss, to the point where he almost completley gains control of Kew's economy; and he gains the title of Warlord, with a fleet large enough to prevent the Cornerians from takeing democratic control of the planet even if they wanted to. Seriously regretting their decision to let him loose, they are forced to watch as he becomes a filthy rich dictator. Fair, but filthy rich. Warlord O'Donnell and his "Empress" have a child, a stunningly intelligent and good looking daughter they name Karen; she gains a rare cerinian gift of telekinesis, making her eyes naturally a deep blood red.

The Toad family inherit the Toad Development Enterprises Station over Corneria, which they have moved into the orbit of Aquas where they pour the company's massive monetary resources into planetary recovery efforts. Their child, the orange skinned Benjamin Toad, gains his mothers intense sense of adventure and almost completely forsakes the path of science despite his natural intelligence, to Slippy's dismay. Slippy works closely with Skye to bring in extra income (ontop of Toad Enterprises' massive workforce bringing in a profit already) developing new technologies for both military and domestic use. While the TE label goes on their inventions, Skye is paid excellent royalties, a trade-off he doesn't mind in the least.

Peppy Hare keeps his word and retires immediately after he ensures that all is well and that the military is set without him. As is tradition, he passes off the Supreme Generalship to the officer of his choosing; Bill Grey. Grey accepts and is named General of all Cornerian forces, a role he is both glad and prepared to take on, to Peppy's relief. He lives to see his grandson Dennis, daughter of Lucy, grow up to take military training and come out at the top of his class. Peppy dies peacefully an old man with no regrets, and his funeral is one of a hero. Thousands show up, including news media and all of the heroes of the Venomian Conflict.

Sabre Lionidis is promoted to Colonel, and is given charge of training and deployment of special operations squadrons. He goes on to marry a gorgeous young lioness named Kris Mirage, and they have a strong young boy they name Zeraph. They live a peaceful life in Corneria City where Zeraph follows in his fathers footsteps, not coincidentally ending up in his training regiment.

Miyu Clawford, still young during the Venomian conflict, gets promoted to Captain and is given command of Blackhook squadron, and lives a long career as their leader, giving Blackhook a name almost as revered as the great Dagger squadron themselves. She dies in an intense firefight in a Katina airport, but not before defusing explosives that would have killed the thousands of civilians inside. She is granted the Gold Medal of Honor at her funeral and a statue is erected in her honor at the Gage Birse Academy on Corneria.

Fay Spaniel, tired of war, takes her pay after the final battle and starts up a mechanic shop on Macbeth, where she remains for five years making an honest living fixing up cars and fighters alike. Her talent becomes noticed by a military recruitment drive going through the slummier section of Macbeth city she works in, and she agrees to sign up to be a naval engineer, making a hell of a lot more money with the hopes that she could travel like she used to.

Every year, all of them would get together in the summer time and have a reunion party, reminiscing about old times and catching up to eachother... and not a single one of them, not even the sinister Wolf O'Donnell, missed a single one.

* * *

* * *

**SPECIAL THANKS:**

** Foxmerc: You're an inspiration and a fantastic author, one of the damn finest. You've been supportive through the whole thing and your input made my first completed book that much better. Without examples set by guys like JZ I probably would have quit this a while ago.**

** Skullfox: For putting me in his special thankz..... JK. Skullfox's "Tails Luck" was the first fanfiction I ever read, and was my inspiration to start my own before I was exposed to guys like Foxmerc and chaos_leader. I owe this guy a lot as far as my writing career goes. Rock on, skull!**

** chaos_leader: While he didn't get directly involved like JZ did, and probably will never see this, this guy is a big inspiration of mine and a fantastic writer. Looking forward to the conclusion of Legacy!**

** KibaKurokage: If I have any actual "fans", this guy is one of them. Hell, he learned about the Star Fox fandom just so he could track this story, and asked for my permission to post my stories places... etc. While I did kinda deny him (which I feel guilty for) it was always heartwarming to get a PM from him. See you around mate, and good luck with your own works!**

** Guitardude: An avid follower of this story and it was always a pick-me-up to see his reviews first on the block whenever I released a chapter. Rock on, man.**

** And Thank YOU, all of the readers not on this list. I appreciate every time someone comes to view my work. Thank you for your continued support!**

**Anywho, I'm going to update this a bit more in regards to removing authors notes and general clean up, even perking up a couple chapters a bit more. PLEASE, REVIEW, GIVE ME YOUR CRITISISM. I'm still gonna work on fixing this baby up! I need to know what I do wrong, and what my strengths are. Tell me everything that comes to mind! I WANT TO HEAR YOU RANT.**

_** ........To Be Continued**_


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